She's a class player – Grace Harris heaps praise on Nadine de Klerk

RCB started their WPL 2026 campaign with a win as Nadine de Klerk produced an all-round masterclass to headline the charge. However, before de Klerk came to the center, Grace Harris and Smriti Mandhana knitted together a crucial stand for the opening wicket to set the tone right for the Royal Challengers, who were chasing a 155-run target.

Talking in a post-match interview, Grace Harris opened up on Nadine’s phenomenal innings. De Klerk smashed an unbeaten 63 from just 44 balls while Harris rocked 25 off just 12 balls, hammering four fours and a six. Harris also revealed a quick chat that she had after the game with RCB’s assistant coach, Anya Shrubsole.

Underlining the Nadine factor, Grace said, “Noodle’s (de Klerk) actually been working really hard at that finishing role recently, and I’m so glad to see her do really well tonight. Hopefully she can carry this momentum throughout the tournament as well. She’s a class player, been around for a little while, but she’s seriously improved over the last 18 months. I love working with her, she’s great.”

Revealing the quick chat which she had with Anya Shrubsole after the game, Harris added, “I must admit, I turned to Anya, our assistant coach, and said, “Gee, this is a good first game of the season, isn’t it?” It got really close. I thought we might be a little too far out of it, and then one or two shots later, Noodle hit that six over cover, and I thought, “Oh, we’re in with a shot here.” The heart rate was calm all day, and I reckon it spiked a little over the last five overs of the match.”

She also spoke at length about the overall approach of the RCB innings, pointing out that the strokeplay could have been better. Gracie stated, “I don’t think you could say the shots we played throughout our innings were very intelligent or the right shots to play. So maybe not luck, maybe more a rethink of how we’re going to go about our cricket on a sliding surface.”

She concluded by talking about the overall finish, adding “But I’m just so happy she finished the way she did. Like I said, she’s been working really hard at this finishing role. Knowing she was coming in the middle, when I first came over to India, I actually thought I’d be playing something similar myself. So it was great to see her go well and do it. It was a bit of a surprise that I ended up at the top, to be honest, but it’s been good fun recently. The group’s going well, it’s been great getting over here and getting together.”