Our execution was a tad bit sloppy: Jonathan Batty

As Royal Challengers easily won their second straight game of the season, Jonathan Batty, the head coach of the Delhi Capitals, thought that his team suffered from their failure to form meaningful partnerships. With 22 balls remaining, the Delhi Capitals were able to chase down the score of 141 before being bowled out.

Jemimah Rodrigues’ aggressive batting in the powerplay helped DC get off to a respectable start, even if they lost Shafali Verma in the first over. Together with Meg Lanning, she scored 59 runs in 39 balls before the former left and the innings collapsed. According to Batty, DC’s total fell between 30 and 40 runs short of par.

“Batting was probably more difficult at the start of the first innings, so I was pretty pleased coming out of the power play being 55 for 1,” said Batty. “In my opinion, RCB bowled incredibly effectively in the first two or three overs, and Meg and Jemimah put up a fierce fight to put us in a strong position at the end of the power play. We were a little bit careless, possibly in parts of our execution, which clearly made it a little too simple for them to take our wickets.

“After Shafali Verma was fired early, they formed a good working relationship. They played, in my opinion, quite positively and with comparatively low-risk shoots. Naturally, the majority of the batters who entered after that had respectable starts, reached their teens and twenties, and were unable to get going. Somewhere in our batting unit, we most likely needed another partnership of 50 or 60 runs to have caught up. A score of 170, in my opinion, could have been more reasonable to even dispute, and a score of 180 or so would have likely been considered par.

Even the bowlers were unable to exert much pressure on RCB after a poor batting performance. Smriti Mandhana attacked Marizanne Kapp first, leaving DC to play the chase the entire time. In less than 11 overs, the opening duo of Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Smriti Mandhana put on a 107-run partnership that decided the match.

“141 I don’t think was ever really going to be enough,” he stated. “As the evening wears on and the dew returns, batting definitely becomes easier. We were aware that we would need to bowl them out and take wickets, which likely puts some pressure on your bowling team as well. Not nearly enough runs, I believe, is the best way to describe it.

“I believed that the RCB bowlers were spot on, especially in the beginning. They were, in my opinion, well-managed by the captain out there as well, and despite our occasional threats towards the end of the power play, they never really allowed us to escape. They continued to plug. They also performed their skills fairly well during that middle part of the game, in my opinion.

Jonathan Batty gave Jemimah great credit for his batting despite the defeat.

Jemimah hit a 22-ball 34 before being stumped while trying to do a reverse sweep against Georgia Wareham. “I believe Jemimah changed her attitude a lot over the past 12 months, which sort of led to last year’s competition, and she was terrific for us last year. I felt she played a lot like she did last year in that inning.

“She was in very, very early because you would obviously expect that she wouldn’t depart in the second ball of the innings as well. As previously stated, she played at a fairly high speed with relatively low risk, which I found to be really pleasing. She and Meg, in my opinion, absorbed some pressure there really nicely before looking to expand when they felt a little more at ease. She could have kicked on, which would have been wonderful, but that’s just the way cricket is sometimes. It’s not always your evening.

Scores have decreased in the subsequent Vadodara matches following a historic opening day in which RCB chased down a 200-plus total for the first time in WPL history. Jonathan Batty thinks it’s because the wickets aren’t as fresh as they were in the first game. He did not, however, rule out the potential of another exciting match at the location.

“When we began, the wickets were obviously new. This one was utilised for the second time. For the upcoming games, we switched, I believe, to a new wicket once more. To be quite honest, I think all of the wickets appear to be in fantastic condition, and if you bat as a team, I believe that 180 to 200 runs will be within your reach.”