How do you console a player who fought tooth and nail to get her team to a win only to fall short by a run? What are the right words? The few seconds of silence from Royal Challengers Bangalore coach Luke Williams, as he lauded Richa Ghosh’s efforts in the debrief after a crushing one-run loss to Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Sunday, said it all.
After Harmanpreet Kaur’s storm of an innings against Gujarat Giants, an interesting conversation ensued among journalists walking out of the Feroz Shah Kotla premises a day prior. “Barring Harmanpreet, who can pull off a heist like this?” rang the motion.
Richa was the unanimous choice and what an ending it would have been to that script if she had pulled it off against one of the best sides in the league in a match where her team needed a win to secure its survival. Alas! Sport giveth and sport taketh away in equal measure.
Of fine margins
When Shafali Verma and Jess Jonassen pulled off that run out off the very last ball, Richa and Shreyanka Patil at the other end froze, not knowing how to process what had just happened. Shreyanka, squatting at the striker’s end, had her face buried in her palms while Richa, was flat on the ground after a dive that went in vain, perhaps hoping for the ground to swallow her whole.
The world went on around them; DC players shook the umpires hands, broadcast teams brought out their standees for player interviews, the post-match presentation space was set up and groundsmen came on to begin their duties for the day. But these two stood still.
Alice Capsey walked up to Shreyanka, who sobbed herself into a ball, while Jemimah sat down with Richa, comforting her India teammate. She was joined by Meg Lanning who gave Richa a few pats on the head. From a competitor as fierce as her and one who is not verbose in praise or brickbats, this is as good as it comes. But nothing would unshatter the pair.
NEW DELHI, 10/03/2023.- RCB batter Shreyanka Patil dives during the WPL Match against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday. | Photo Credit: R V Moorthy / The Hindu
Needing 17 runs off the last over, a cramping Richa and Disha Kasat had a mountain to climb mentally. Lanning turned to her trusted soldier Jonassen who, for years, has struck fears in opponents across the world with her ability to dump pressure in the bin.
“I knew that at the start of the over, if I could set it up without going for a boundary in one of the first two balls, then we were sort of well and truly on the front foot. But, getting hit for a massive six down the ground was not ideal, and then I gave it too much air for her in the second last ball,” Jonassen said after the game.
Lanning and Jonassen spoke before every ball. Field tweaks were made and instructions were screamed across the field. After that six over Jonassen’s head which brought the target down to 11 off 5, Jonassen fired into Richa, allowing no space to make anything of the ball. Dot. Richa then ran two, struggling to finish her run having kept wickets for 20 overs before coming on to bat.
Jonassen then went slow, with Richa managing to get it over to long off. The pair ran yet again as Jonassen waited for the throw at the non-strikers’ end. She clipped the stumps just after the batters crossed, sending Disha back to the pavilion. While DC celebrated the runout, Lanning – in quintessential Doctor Strange style– calculated all possible elements and ran to the umpire to check if the pair had crossed.
Royal Challengers Bangalore batter Richa Ghosh being consoled by Delhi Capitals bowler Jess Jonassen during the WPL Match at the Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday. | Photo Credit: R. V. MOORTHY / The Hindu
Had that gone their way, it would be curtains for Richa. But the 20-year-old lived to bat some more. In walked Shreyanka. Richa then dispatched a length ball to midwicket and uncomfortably scrambled for two once more, her partner darting across, constantly egging her on to finish the run.
RCB and the collective nervous system of the Kotla needed a big hit and Richa delivered, this time creaming the ball over the longest part of the ground to bring the requirement to two runs off the last ball. That also brought Richa her fifty. S Meghana, who was puzzlingly dropped for this game turned around to hug Renuka. Sophie Devine was thoroughly entertained as she thumped the seat in front of her in admiration.
Lanning and Jonassen plotted once more, this chat a tad longer than the others. It’s safe to assume that all 23,453 people in the stands were on their feet, perhaps chewing away what was left of their fingernails.
Jonassen went in full on the stumps, targeting Richa’s toes. Richa took a step back to give herself room and smacked the ball which ended up slicing its way to Shafali Verma at backward point who sent it straight back to Jonassen. The Aussie allrounder first thrashed the stumps at the non-striker’s and then hurled the ball to the stumps at Shreyanka’s end too.
While DC celebrated, the review confirmed what RCB dreaded most. The side fell short yet again, by inches this time.
Still I rise
This bunch, the Indian youngsters, have seen far too many heart-breaking losses. The T20 World Cup in Melbourne, a five-run loss to Australia in the semifinal of the 2022 Women’s ODI World Cup and countless other bilaterals and domestic T20 cricket. Richa has been a part of many of those, but this will hurt. It will hurt for what could have been, for a chapter it would have added to the book of Indian batting pedigree.
“You have to accept that that’s sport. It’s part of what you have to accept that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose,” Ellyse Perry, who has a knack of betraying no emotion good or bad, said in her assessment of the game.
“She’ll be a better player in the future for it. There’s only an upside. I hope she wakes up tomorrow, the sun comes up and she feels better. She all but got us over the line. No one deserves to win or lose a game of sport. It just happens. We’ve got another match in a couple of nights and she’s a big part of the team,” she added.
Richa found a sympathetic shoulder in Jemimah who chose to be optimistic in the role this night will play in the bigger scheme of things for Richa, the India player.
“I think Richa is such a young star and this exposure…only the WPL could do that. I told her that this experience is going to help you in the World Cup. You might just go on to hit the winning runs in the World Cup and help us lift the trophy,” she said.
Cricket’s core validated
If you brush the clouds of emotion aside, what remains is a ruthless persistence from the Delhi Capitals, something that took the team through to a memorable win. At no stage did the side look deflated. Despite the Sophie Molineux opening act backfiring a little, RCB being blessed with a deep batting order helped them wield card after card of proven match-winners – Perry, Devine, Wareham (in good touch with the bat), Richa, Shreyanka…
Sunday’s chase, barring a blip from captain Smriti Mandhana which saw her being dismissed identically to other instances from this very season, was a commendable effort. The question marks need to arise with their efforts on the field.
Shreyanka’s four-fer, coming from a player working off a niggle, was the end of the spectrum all players needed to work to. The efforts on the field were lacklustre like they have been for much of this edition. Boundaries are allowed, the odd (yet valuable) catch is dropped and the intent to place a chokehold on the runs has largely been missing.
It is this that separated RCB from DC. Even when the target looked within RCB’s grasp, Lanning never switched off. Plans A till Z were in place and the Capitals were relentless. In the 16th over, Marizanne Kapp who looked a little gingerly throughout this game, dove to stop a ball from racing away to the boundary.
Arundhati covered the boundary ropes like her life was at stake. Jemimah hurled herself in the air even for attempts she knew she might not catch and was clean with the ones well within her reach.
DC was superior but not flawless, Capsey dropping a sitter that could have sent Perry off is an example. While the allrounder was run out a few deliveries later, this would have been a moment that DC could have looked back in disdain if RCB’s stars had aligned.
This moment stands out not so much for its place in the match but for what it said about this team’s character. After Perry was run out, a natural celebration ensued by the wicket. Jemimah, meanwhile, ran all the way to Capsey at long off and patted her on the back, reassuring her that the worst was over and it was to be forgotten. These little things, to carry the side along even in error sets this outfit apart.
“Shikha di bowling the 16th over was a turning point. She gave away just five runs. That set the tone because there were two of the best T20 batters in Richa and Sophie Devine. Meg contributing with the bat as always, Alice coming in and playing a role different from the usual, Aru (Arundhati), Radha and even JJ (Jonassen) bowling that last over, and Shafali getting the run out at the end! Me coming and getting this POTM award is fine. One person takes the award, but this was a full team effort.”Jemimah Rodrigues
It was a weekend of edge-of-the-seat thrillers that would make anyone’s cardiac fibre tremble. From Harmanpreet in the MI vs GG game and Deepti in the UPW vs DC encounter to even Richa in this clash, this leg, and the tournament at large, has seen its fair share of individual heroes, stepping up when their team had had their backs to a wall. Lone wolves, though, can only go so far. For the strength of the wolf is the pack and gosh, did the pack thrive.
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