Meg Lanning stated that her sluggishness while opening the batting set the tone for Delhi Capitals’ first defeat of the Women’s Premier League. The Mumbai Indians comprehensively defeated Capitals by eight wickets to emerge as the only unbeaten side in the tournament.
WPL 2023, DC vs MI blog: Bowlers set up big win as Harmanpreet Kaur and Co remain unbeaten
The Australian captain, with a quickfire 72 and 70 in the first two matches, has been leading from the front. Presently, the top run-scorer in the league, she added another 43 runs to the tally with her knock against Mumbai but stated in the post-match presentation that she was unsatisfied with the way they came.
Soon after, Delhi crumbled to 105 all out, allowing Mumbai to easily cruise to a third consecutive victory as they scored 109/2 with five overs remaining.
Here are excerpts from the post-match presentation:
What’s your thoughts on the toss now?
(Laughs) Hindsight is a wonderful thing. To be honest, we were actually in very similar positions in the 12-over mark. And unfortunately in the innings we just couldn’t put partnerships together. I’ll take a lot of blame for that. I think I took up some balls early and then got out at a crucial time which was disappointing. We needed a set batter to get us through towards the back end. So that was a difference really, you know, lots of stuff to work on. I thought Mumbai bowled excellently and that’s the game. Sometimes it doesn’t go your way.
Was there a little bit of something in the pitch to know it did look like there was maybe a little bit of movement?
Yeah, there was certainly a little bit in it for the bowlers which is a good thing. It’s not always gonna be a flat track and it did tend to hold a little bit more than perhaps the other wickets we’ve played on so you know, sometimes you just got to adapt what you get and then Mumbai seemed do that a little bit better.
We spoke about chasing 200. But let’s go to setting, when you come up against the side like Mumbai Indians, is that what you’re certainly thinking you’re doing or is it constant readjustment as you’re out there?
Constant adjustment really. I mean, you can’t go out there. You know, looking at that 18- right from the start. I think you get yourself into a bit of trouble as you do that. You’ve got to build the blocks first and get set and build partnerships throughout. And that’s what allows you to go at the back end and that’s what we weren’t able to do today. So it wasn’t our best day. We gave it a crack but you know, there’s lots to learn and I think we’re able to pull it back a little bit through the bowling innings which is a good sign and hopefully come back better next time.
Okay, just positives. Come on. Give us a couple of them, pull out a couple of players that you’re impressed with.
Well I thought Rodrigues actually came out and really attacked the ball and the sort of swung the momentum a fair bit our way which was good and we just couldn’t capitalise on it. I think Alice Capsey has been bowling excellently was able to tie them down really well. So we got some good options. Some things went well for us tonight.
Orange suits you though (referring to the cap for being the leading run-scorer).
(LAUGHS) Ooooh, I feel a bit silly wearing this to be honest with you. Yeah, look, hopefully I can keep contributing. And you know, we’ve got a few few more wins in us.