Sophie Devine: We have shown real improvement

RCB’s Sophie Devine after her 45-ball 66 against Gujarat Giants at the Brabourne Stadium on Wednesday. Pic/Ashish Raje

Notwithstanding their third loss on the trot, Royal Challengers Bangalore and New Zealand batter Sophie Devine is confident that her side will be able to effect a turnaround in the Women's Premier League. RCB lost to Gujarat Giants on Wednesday night.

Chasing what Devine called an ‘at par' score of 202 to win, Royal Challengers Bangalore finished at 180-6 despite a fighting knock from the right-handed Devine, who played a largely sole hand in their chase while the other batters could not make a strong dent. RCB were guilty of facing far too many dot balls during their chase, including the fact that they did not hit a single six until the 14th over, something that was hugely responsible for their defeat in a high-scoring contest.

"Obviously not, because we did not win," Devine told the media when asked if her side missed a trick by not clearing the boundary ropes enough. "I think to pinpoint [a reason for loss] is pretty tough, to nail it down to one thing, but I think probably our dot balls [were too many]. And it is going to happen sometimes, you have to give the credit to the bowlers who bowled some great deliveries today [Wednesday].

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"But still we have shown how you can get those dot balls to be even those singles. In games like this you get back and look at every single ball you think could I have got a run there or could we have pushed for two. "It is really disappointing, but I think we have shown real improvement from game to game," she added.

The New Zealand batter said RCB were completely aware of the fact that a high score of 190-200 is at par score at the Brabourne Stadium, where short boundaries, flat pitches and quick outfield have resulted in the team leaking a total in excess of 200 for second time out of three matches that they have played so far.

Injured Mooney ruled out, Rana named GG captain

India all-rounder Sneh Rana was on Thursday named captain of Gujarat Giants after Beth Mooney was ruled out of the remainder of the inaugural WPL owing to a calf injury. The Australian had suffered the injury while batting during the tournament opener against Mumbai Indians at the DY Patil Stadium on March 4. Mooney is likely to take four to six weeks to regain full fitness.

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