MATCH STORIES
Follow UsYou need to be really special to take attention away from Meg Lanning, and that’s what Alice Capsey and Shafali Verma have been doing for the Delhi Capitals. Both have already scored over a 100 runs and are among the tournament's top scorers.
Between the two trailblazing talents comes the humble figure of Meg Lanning. While the limelight has been on the youngsters, she had quietly scored 93 runs in 3 innings, which placed her as the ninth-highest run-scorer of the season before the game.
Hence, it wasn’t like Meg Lanning was out of form, and she showed that today when the 19 and 20-year-olds perished by the end of the seventh over.
In the first six overs, Lanning had scored just a run-a-ball 13 because she didn’t need to do anything else until then. Shafali and Capsey took up the scoring responsibilities, ensuring that DC had 51/1 at the end of the powerplay. However, Capsey departed in the next over, and that’s when the Lanning show began.
Today (March 3), batting against Gujarat Giants on a pitch that was gripping a bit, Lanning showed not only skill but also her temperament. She knew that she didn’t need to take risks as the runs were coming thick and fast from the other end. Apart from one four, she just kept rotating the strike.
Even after Capsey’s wicket, she took the same approach to preserve her wicket, waited for two overs until she took on Tarannum Pathan on her WPL debut, and blasted her high and handsome over the long off fence for a biggie. That broke the shackles for DC.
She kept attacking the subsequent spinners - Mannat Kashyap and Ashleigh Gardner - scoring three fours in the space of two overs along with ongoing service of singles and doubles.
If you look at her wagon wheel, all her fours, including the consecutive ones she scored against Meghna Singh before getting out, came square or behind the stumps, which has always been a strength for her. The Gujarat spinners (and Meghna) fed her wide and full deliveries, and she made full use of it.
In the end, Lanning’s 55 was not only the highest score of the game for both teams but also an innings of the highest class. As batters kept getting out on full deliveries trying to play horizontal bat shots, Lanning displayed how to do that, not only effectively but also gracefully.
Her innings was also a major difference between the two teams, as no one played an innings like that for Gujarat, where DC survived through the tough times and capitalised later on.
However, it’s also unfair to expect others to be Meg Lanning.
Today, she showed that while the bright flashes of youth might have their allure, their bravado is built on the class of seniors like Lanning.
