MATCH STORIES
Follow UsThere was no time machine needed.
All the Tardis and the Time-Turners were still locked in the fictional worlds they belonged to. And above all, you didn’t need a car that would take you back and forth through time like a Time Taxi.
A 19-year-old and a 20-year-old just took a house full Chinnaswamy Stadium on a tour of the future as they scythed through RCB’s bowling attack and exploded in a 82-run partnership in just 43 balls at a strike rate of 190.
It was pristine hitting. It was powerful hitting. It was the hitting that was promised when a tournament like the WPL was launched in women’s cricket.
It was a hitting that announced that the tryst women’s cricket had with the future is being fulfilled, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially.
~
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Meg Lanning had departed on the 29th ball of the game. The score was just 28. The opposition, playing in their house full den, was on the top. After all, Lanning is the head of DC’s batting order, and just like Ned Stark in Game of Thrones, DC were beheaded even before the main act could begin.
Any wise batter would have taken it slow, created a base for a few overs, and then tried to go berserk. That’s what conventional cricket wisdom says.
But why be wise when you can be brave and just rage?
Alice Capsey and Shafali Verma then went on a carnage.
Capsey faced her first ball and decided to forget what had happened a ball before. She just flicked Sophie Devine to square leg with disdain. No sighters needed. Just come and hit.
Next over, Shafali hit the left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux for a four and a six, with the six coming off a dance down the track shot that sent the ball soaring into the stands. The connection was clean, with the bat coming in a big arc behind her back and ending in front of her as the ball met the bat. It sounded like a gunshot.
Who said women can't do power-hitting?
Alice Capsey has struggled a bit against right-arm pacers who bring the ball in during her WPL stint. She averages only 24 and strikes at just 111.6 against them. Hence, she played out Renuka Singh’s next over and didn’t try a big shot.
It’s not just mad hitting, you know. This 19-year-old from Redhill, Surrey, is smart. Very smart.
The next over was bowled by RCB’s leg spinner Asha Sobhana. Capsey strikes at 172 against her bowling kind in the WPL. She hit her for two fours, using her feet for the first one and using her reverse sweep for the other. Range, shots, power - Capsey has all, and all was on display today.
The result was even better when she faced another leggie, Georgia Wareham, next. She scored a six and four. She was 31 (18) at the end of that over.
But it wasn’t a carnage from just one end. Shafali has a much better record against pace than spin, and she whopped Renuka for a four between square leg and mid-wicket and took 11 runs in that over.
When medium pacer Nadine de Klerk came in to bowl, she bowled it full, begging to be hit. But still, it needed a full-fledged bat swing with good speed if it had to be a six. Capsey did what was needed.
Later, Shafali Verma smacked an out-of-form Shreyanka Patil for two consecutive sixes to complete her fifty in just 30 deliveries before departing on her 31st ball. From 28/1, a teenager and a 20-year-old had taken their team to 110/2 in just 7.1 overs.
Their awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses allowed them to combat the opposition without any damage. That proved to be decisive. Their partnership gave DC the momentum to notch up a big first innings total on a batting haven. Jess Jonassen (36* off 16) cashed in and took them to 194/5. At the end, RCB fell 25 runs short.
Shafali and Capsey weren’t just two separate individuals batting. They were a single unit of destruction, which roared in front of a Chinnaswamy packed to the brim with RCB fans. They did not go gentle into the night.
~
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Power game have always been considered the next step in the evolution of women’s cricket. The T20 format is the Galapagos of that process.
Today, two youngsters showed what it might look like once that process is over. Sixes being hit off the back and front foot, and also through the brute process of stand and deliver. All they needed was a chance to show that they can.
And boy, what a raging show did the young put on!
The future that was promised was there at the Chinnaswamy today. Welcome it, women’s cricket fans!
