Wasn’t too worried about our batting, only thinking about bowling: Lanning

Delhi Capitals skipper Meg Lanning said she was confident of scoring big in their Women’s Premier League (WPL) match here on Sunday, looking at her team’s batting line-up and was only worried about her bowling ahead of the match. It turned out that they defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 60 runs. Delhi Capitals scored a mammoth score of 223 on a batsmen-friendly pitch with Lanning’s 72 and Shefali Verma’s 84.

Then American bowler Tara Norris took five wickets for 29 runs and gave her team a winning start in the tournament. With Shafali, Marijane Kapp and Jemimah Rodrigues in the batting line-up, Lanning had confidence in her batting. Lanning, who recently won Australia the ICC T20 World Cup title, said after the match, “We were thinking about our bowling but we were not too worried about batting. It was great to see Shafali batting at the other end. We were smiling the whole time we were batting. ,

Lanning said the beauty of the tournament is that it allows players from different countries to play against each other, which otherwise would not have happened. He said, “The good thing about this tournament is that you get a chance to play with such players, against whom you do not get to play. We thought it was a good score but it was a good wicket to bat on so we knew we had to bowl well. It’s great to start the tournament with a win. ,

Shafali, who shared a 162-run partnership for the first wicket with Lanning, said, “It was a good wicket to bat on. I was a little nervous in the beginning. It was a great experience playing with Lanning, she is a good friend and she told me to bat responsibly. We wanted to play good shots and play to our strengths. We were happy with the score. Tara Norris was adjudged ‘Player of the Match’.

He said, “Happy, Meg Lanning and Shafali started well with the bat and the bowlers bowled according to their plans. Happy to win The first wicket was very special. RCB skipper Smriti Mandhana admitted that her side conceded too many runs but would like to take a lot of positives from the defeat. He said, “We gave away too many runs, about 20-30 runs more. We still have to play consecutive matches, but before the next match, we will take some positive things from this match. We got off to a good start but couldn’t carry on and play big innings. The wicket didn’t change much, just needed someone to carry it till the 20th over.