After becoming runners-up in WPL for the second straight time after losing Sunday’s final to the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Capitals head coach Jonathan Batty admitted that his team fell a few runs short after a blistering start to their innings, resulting in them being bowled out for 113.

DC had a blazing start by making 61 runs in the powerplay, also the joint-highest score in the first six overs of this WPL season and looked set to make a big total. But once the spinners came in, DC crumbled like nine pins, mainly due to their poor shot selection, falling from 64/0 in seven overs to losing their all ten wickets in just 49 runs.

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At the same time, Batty backed the aggressive mode of cricket adopted by DC batters. “We didn’t do ourselves justice with the bat (in the final). We left ourselves a few runs short of where we probably should have been after that fantastic start. As a fielding unit, full credit to our players, they were amazing. I don’t think we should have done anything differently.”

“We back our batters to play really aggressive and 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 160 or 180 and it’s a completely different game.”

“Like I said earlier, they have been fantastic all tournament, I think we have been one of the standout teams through that to finish at the top of the table, and our batters have been absolutely amazing,” he said in the post-match press conference.

Batty also denied suggestions of his batters being spooked by the pitch, which began to aide RCB spinners once they came in. “The pitch played fantastically well, and when you lose a cluster of wickets, pressure builds. Batters try to rebuild, but RCB bowled really well through the middle phase once their spinners got the right areas to bowl on the pitch and there were no demons in the pitch.”

In the defence of a paltry total, captain Meg Lanning chose to employ 11 overs of fast-bowling in the first 13 overs, which was in complete contrast of how RCB brought spinners early in their time with the ball. Batty praised captain Meg Lanning for taking the game till the last over through her bowling tactics.

“I guess she felt that the seamers were keeping the batters under control. It was about trying to take the game as deep as possible with only a small total on the board and 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.

“She (Meg) has been absolutely unbelievable in the whole tournament. We just talk about where we are in the game, how we can get the players back up and how we have to fight in the game. I thought we bowled and fielded magnificently and most of it comes down to her captaincy.”

“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 signed off by being delighted over how the Indian domestic players in the DC camp had improved from their performances in WPL 2023. Arundhati Reddy and Radha Yadav were consistent in their wicket-taking roles while Titas Sadhu and Minnu Mani gave a good account of themselves in the opportunities they had.

“From the Delhi Capitals point of view, our Indian domestic players have 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 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 in people like Arundhati (Reddy) & Radha (Yadav) stepping up to the plate as well, Titas (Sadhu) 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 whole 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,” he concluded.