"I thought it was fantastic captaincy" - DC head coach Jonathan Batty praises Meg Lanning for taking the WPL 2024 final into the last over
Delhi Capitals (DC) women's team head coach Jonathan Batty has heaped praise on Meg Lanning's captaincy throughout the tournament, especially the final where she was tasked with defending a paltry 114-run target. Although DC lost in the end, they made RCB work hard to scale the target, with the game ending with only three balls to spare.
Lanning, one of the leading run-scorers of the season, had guided her side to a perfect start in the final along with Shafali Varma. The pair had dominated the powerplay before a triple-wicket over by Sophie Molineux changed the complexion of the game. The former Australian skipper fell for a run-a-ball 23 ultimately as DC once again posted a low score in the WPL final.
DC have arguably been the most dominant side in the WPL, topping the league table twice in two seasons and qualifying directly for the finals. However, they do not have any silverware to show for it, something which Lanning is not familiar with, taking her illustrious record as Australia captain into account.
"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. 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," DC head coach Jonathan Batty said after the WPL 2024 final.
"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," Batty added.
DC had only lost two games in the season before the final and had a perfect 4-0 record against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) too.
"I think we have been one of the standout teams to finish at the top of the table" - Jonathan Batty
DC never really recovered in the middle overs as the RCB spin trio of Sophie Molineux, Asha Sobhana, and Shreyanka Patil took things over. The latter picked up a four-wicket haul to claim the Purple Cap award with 13 wickets to her name.
"We back our batters to play really aggressive, positive cricket as we have done all tournament. The margins are so small. 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," Jonathan Batty said.
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," Jonathan Batty added.
The shot selection of several DC batters was questioned at the end of the first innings. The likes of Shafali Verma, Alice Capsey and Jemimah Rodrigues all perished to poor shots in quick succession to shift the momentum in RCB's favor.