After losing the WPL final, Delhi Capitals head coach Jonathan Batty offered his support behind his team’s aggressive batting style throughout the season, despite the 113 all out in the final, which cost them the trophy.
“We back our batters to play really aggressive, positive cricket as we have done all tournament. The margins are so small,” Batty said. “Those batters who got out in the middle phase in the innings, they get a bat on one of those and it goes for four runs, we get 150 or 180 and it’s a completely different game. They have been fantastic all tournament, I think we have been one of the standout teams to finish at the top of the table, and our batters have been absolutely amazing.”
DC were 64/0 before Sophie Molineux’s three-wicket over turned the game upside down. “We did not do ourselves justice with the bat [in the final]. We fell a few runs shy of where we should have been after such an impressive start. The players performed admirably as a fielding unit. “I don’t believe we should have done anything differently,” Batty stated.
Batty also praised Meg Lanning’s “outstanding” captaincy, which allowed the RCB to chase down a mediocre target with only three balls remaining.
“I guess she felt that the seamers were keeping the batters under control. Trying to take the game as deep as possible with only a small total on the board. If anything, it worked,” Batty explained. “I thought it was fantastic captaincy; a lot of people would not have done that, would not have been brave enough to do that. So full credit to Meg for doing that and nearly getting us home in the end.
“She puts her heart and soul into this competition at Delhi Capitals. She’s been fantastic. I guess she is disappointed as we all are, we felt we didn’t do ourselves justice today. We have been brilliant all tournament, full credit to RCB for winning tonight.”
India’s domestic players in the DC squad levelled up to the challenge all season, something that was also acknowledged by Batty.
“Our Indian domestic players stepped up the plate. They’ve all improved. I have talked before of how hard they have worked over the last 12 months. Once the last season ended, we ran various camps, and we gave them some guidance and advice. But they have been away and worked very, very hard for the last 12 months. You could see it… people like Arundhati, Radha stepping up to the plate as well, Titas played a couple of games and was outstanding as well. She is going to be a bright prospect in the future, she’s gonna be amazing.
“You look across the tournament, the Indian domestic players are improving all the time. The quality of the cricket in this tournament has been fantastic and a significant uplift on last year, which was already fantastic.”
