Vadodara, Jan 29 UP Warriorz's skipper Meg Lanning expressed disappointment after her side lost a crucial encounter against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by eight wickets on Thursday as the 2024 champions sealed their place in the 2026 Women’s Premier League (WPL) final at the BCA Stadium, Kotambi, in Vadodara.
Lanning said that whenever the batters failed to ‘carry on’ after getting themselves ‘onto a reasonable platform’ and believes that the same theme has been followed by the team throughout the tournament this season.
“Really disappointing. We got ourselves onto a reasonable platform with the bat, but just couldn’t carry on. It’s probably been a bit of a theme throughout the tournament -- we get some momentum and then lose wickets at crucial times, often in clumps. That’s not ideal in T20 cricket. And then with the ball, we never really got going,” Lanning told broadcasters after the game.
The former Australia captain lavished praise on Grace Harris, whose whirlwind knock of 75 runs helped RCB finish off the 144-run chase with ease in just 13.1 overs.
“Grace was outstanding again; she put away anything we missed and finished it off beautifully. So credit to her and to RCB - unfortunately, we just didn’t put our best foot forward tonight. As I mentioned, every time we’ve had some momentum with the bat, we’ve given our wickets away and made it a little bit too easy for the opposition. They’ve capitalised really well.
“In T20 cricket, when batters get in and get going, you need to maximise that. We’ve probably underdone that -- myself included. I got to 40, which is a good start, but you need to keep going. That’s been a theme across the whole tournament, and it’s something we need to improve.
“They both (Harris and Smriti) batted extremely well. They played the conditions nicely and punished us whenever we were slightly off. As I said, they were just too good tonight. We couldn’t find an answer, no matter how hard we tried, and sometimes that’s the way it goes,” Lanning noted.
Asked if the break between their two outings was too long, Lanning said, “I don’t really think so. It is what it is. We had time to recover and train before coming into this game, so there are no excuses. I don’t think it played a major role. RCB outplayed us tonight, and we just weren’t good enough.”
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