What did DC’s Shafali Verma and RCB coach Luke Williams share in the post-game presser?

Table toppers Delhi Capitals put on a rampaging show against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, crushing the home team by nine wickets to seal their spot in the playoffs. Shikha Pandey and N Charani produced brilliant spells, dismantling RCB’s batting lineup, while Shafali Verma’s explosive knock made the chase a mere formality. RCB had no answers to DC’s relentless performance, as the visitors outclassed them in every department to storm into the knockout stage in style.

Player of the match Shafali Verma wore a big smile on her face while taking the questions of the press with ease.

Verma toyed with the RCB’s bowlers and scored an unbeaten 80 with a strike rate of 186.05. Assessing the conditions of the deck, she said, ”I as a batter know that the pitch had much to offer for the bowlers in the first couple of overs. Our bowlers did very well in the first innings. They know which lengths to hit, and they are mentally prepared as well and executing all the plans properly.”

On the challenge of continuing good momentum as a batter, the player mentioned that a batter has to start from zero. Having a good knock under their belt and no rest before the next game helps a lot. She expressed satisfaction in converting her 40s into a half-century and was really happy to remain unbeaten.

On batting with Jess Jonassen, the 21-year-old said that playing with her is really fun. Their focus was on rotating the strike, and they kept encouraging each other to play till the end. They believed in each other throughout the innings.

Skipper Meg Lanning has blown in hot and cold patches, but there appears to be no sign of worry in the Capitals change room. “She’s really hardworking and is in attendance for every practice session. We all know when she’s in touch, she’ll score a fifty. She’s also a human and as a batter we all know how tough it is to perform in every game. She’s a very good player, no doubt about that.”

On learning from playing alongside Meg Lanning, the opening batter said, “From last 2 years, she hasn’t practiced much and since she knows that she isn’t in touch, she goes to the practice session every single time and that is a great learning for me. When you’re playing well, there’s applause from everyone but when the chips are down, you need to back yourself and every day is a new day. I get to learn a lot from her (Lanning) everyday. The best learning is backing yourself during a low phase,” she added.

On her plans while batting against RCB, the belligerent opener said that the ball was doing too much initially. She told herself to stay out there, knowing her ability to sight and middle the ball better later. She acknowledged that the opposition bowled very well in the first few overs, but as the innings progressed, both she and Jess settled in. After a tough initial phase, runs started flowing, and since they were set, they managed to hit good shots.

The head coach of the Challengers answered the questions of the media.

RCB were bruised early by the dismissal of Mandhana and couldn’t recover thereon. They crawled to 147 for the loss of 5 wickets on the shoulders of an unbeaten fifty by Ellyse Perry. On being unable to set a bigger target, Williams said, “I think we should have got more than what we did tonight. We had a decent platform with wickets in hand. It’s been a little bit of a pattern at different times throughout our later overs that we haven’t quite been able to capitalise as well as we could.

“I think Delhi were good tonight in terms of their three seamers in particular, and the left-arm orthodox on debut was fantastic. But I don’t think we were as efficient in terms of hitting the ball into gaps and some of the options. Yeah, I certainly think we didn’t quite get the score that we were capable of tonight.”

On the problems while batting first, the head coach said that from their point of view, they actually had opportunities. They batted first all four times in Bangalore but had chances in earlier games to close them out. While it might seem that batting second provides favorable conditions, they believe that if they are honest with themselves, they had opportunities, especially in the first couple of games against Mumbai Indians and UP Warriorz, to get results. He admitted that on the night, they were comprehensively outplayed, regardless of whether they were batting first or second, and acknowledged that they were simply not good enough.

Skipper Meg Lanning walked back to the hut on a cheap score, and the home team couldn’t have asked for a better start in the second innings. On what went wrong after a good start while defending, Williams added, “I probably couldn’t have asked for a better start in the first three overs.

“When you’re defending a probably below-par score, you need to start well, and we did that. Credit to Shafali and Jess Jonassen. I thought they moved around the crease, they put pressure back on us as a bowling side, and unfortunately, we weren’t able to respond consistently enough for long enough. We leaked far too many boundaries in that partnership. So, credit to them for how they played, but certainly, our execution at times wasn’t as good as it needed to be.”

Toss has been a crucial factor in the second leg of the tournament as teams have preferred to chase at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru. Giving his opinion, the coach said, “The toss—I think that’s probably one of the big things—is to be able to assess what score you need in the first innings and how to go about that. So that’s certainly been a focus for us in recent games—our communication as a group, how we’re discussing what options are best at different times.

“Whilst there still needs to be that rotation of strike, especially when you’ve got set batters and you want them to face as many balls as possible, you also want in the T20 game for players, when they get opportunities to hit the ball for boundaries, to still take that and back themselves. So, it’s about trying to strike that balance. At times, we’ve been okay with that, but at times we haven’t, and that’s something for our players and for us as a team to continue to work on.

“We’ve obviously got a week to prepare, and we’ve got a couple of games. It’s going to be a test of character now to really bounce back and hopefully respond in a really good way in the next two games. It’s a process over the next week.”

On putting up a disappointing show in Bangalore and what lies ahead in the competition, the 45-year-old said that they certainly have to take responsibility and acknowledge their disappointment in their performances in Bangalore. He emphasized that they have great support and are eager to deliver results for their fans, but they have failed to do so.

He mentioned that there are lessons to be learned from their performances, and while they need to reflect on those, they also have to recognize the positives and focus on executing them for longer periods while maintaining a positive mindset. He acknowledged that they are still alive in the competition and recalled that last year, there were moments when it seemed like they were on the edge, but the way the season ended was exactly what they had hoped for from an RCB perspective.

He stressed the importance of continuing to believe in their ability to achieve results and expressed confidence in the quality of the team. He added that they need to find a way to return to their best cricket, similar to how they started the tournament, and get a strong performance under their belt to regain confidence. He concluded by highlighting the competitiveness of the tournament, noting that they regularly face strong teams.

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