“I’ve made a slight change in technique and worked on the mental aspect of my game and I feel very stable now.” Shafali Verma speaks about the adjustment she has made to her game.
After witnessing multiple edge-of-the-seat thrillers, last-ball finishes in the ongoing 2nd edition of the Women’s Premier League. The last couple of matches ended up as one-sided contests to conclude the league stages of the tournament.
Delhi Capitals led by skipper Meg Lanning signed off the league stages on a high, with a seven-wicket victory over Gujarat Giants. They secured a direct qualification in the final of the 2nd edition of the WPL on 17th March 2024. The Gujarat Giants skipper Beth Mooney won the toss and opted to bat first. The Giants kept losing wickets at regular intervals and as a result, they eventually just managed a total of 126/9 in their quota of overs. The 68-run 6th wicket partnership between Bharti Fulmali and Kathryn Bryce took them over the 100-run mark.
Bharti Fulmali (42 off 36 balls), and Kathryn Bryce (28 off 22 balls) were the top performers with the bat for Gujarat Giants. Marizanne Kapp (4-0-17-2), Shikha Pandey (4-0-23-2), and Minnu Mani (2-0-9-2) were the top performers with the ball for Delhi Capitals. Chasing a below-par total, the Delhi Capitals got off to a flying start, before they lost a couple of wickets in the 4th over of the run chase.
However, Jemimah Rodrigues joined opening batter Shafali Verma at the crease, and the duo almost took their side over the line with a 94-run 3rd-wicket partnership before Tanuja Kanwer came back and picked up the wicket of Shafali Verma. However, Jemimah Rodrigues finished the game in style with a boundary. The Delhi Capitals sealed the game with seven wickets in hand and 41 balls to spare. Shafali Verma (71 off 37 balls), Jemimah Rodrigues (38 off 28 balls), and skipper Meg Lanning (18 off 10 balls) were the top performers with the bat for Delhi Capitals.
Courtesy of their top-of-the-table finish in the league stages, they booked a spot in the final of the 2nd edition of the WPL. Shafali Verma was awarded the Player of the Match for her brilliant match-winning innings (71 off 37 balls) with the bat. “I’ve made a slight change in technique and worked on the mental aspect of my game and I feel very stable now. I am able to clear my shots well and I am also finding gaps. So I think, touch wood, I am doing well for the team.” Shafali Verma speaks about the adjustments she made in her batting helped her in building a long innings.
Yet another batting collapse from the Gujarat Giants cost them an opportunity to finish their disappointing campaign in the 2nd edition of the WPL on a high note. “I suppose overall we came here with a goal of making the playoffs. So there’s no doubt, we are disappointed we didn’t do that. In terms of small improvements, I think there’s certainly been that since last year. We’ve unearthed some players that I think are gonna be a big part of Gujarat Giants. Tanuja’s been unbelievable all tournament. She’s been our most consistent player I would say. And as we said Shabnam in the previous game, to unearth a talent like that, I think is fantastic. So that’s gonna hold us in good stead. There’s been a little bit of an overreliance on our top-order batting when that did really well, we played well. So, you know, it didn’t help losing Harleen with an injury, earlier in the tournament. So there’s a few things that we can take out of it, going into next year, I think as I said, unearthed a couple of players, we know, overseas batting gets going and they’re really strong. We can add another couple of the local players who have shown little bits and pieces, if they can do that more consistently going forward, then no doubt we’ll be stronger next year.” The Gujarat Giants’ head coach Michael Klinger reflects on their campaign in the 2nd edition of the WPL and speaks about the takeaways from the season.
(Information sourced from Jio Cinema)