Over the last decade or more, several different words in the cricket dictionary have grown hands and legs. One of the words which has been used to analyse a performance in T20 cricket is impact.
The quantum of runs has significantly taken lower precedence, as compared to the number of balls taken to score those runs. Yuzvendra Chahal once told R Ashwin on his YouTube channel that when he first came to Royal Challengers Bangalore, his coach Daniel Vettori told him he expected him to take a minimum of three wickets if he went for 40 runs in his four overs at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
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Prior to how batting and bowling performances were measured, T20 cricket had seen a new evolution with the rising demand for two-dimensional players among teams from around the world to ensure that they developed the right balance in their playing XI.
In that regard, the Delhi Capitals have arguably the most undroppable player in the WPL. Marizanne Kapp is not an express pace bowler, she is not a top-order batter who can give blistering starts in the Powerplay.
She is, however, a perfect example for the ideal two-dimensional cricketer a T20 side can have, on her day. That day came on Thursday against hosts Royal Challengers Bangalore, where she showed why she was DC’s MVP after a fine all-round performance which saw her score 32 runs off 16 balls and later claimed 2 for 35 and deservedly get the Player of the Match award.
The likes of Shafali Verma and Alice Capsey had laid the foundation for DC in the opening 10 overs. But at 122 for 4 in 15 overs, RCB still had the opportunity to restrict the visitors to a total that they could chase batting second.
But Kapp had other ideas as she went after both pace and spin, exerting significant pressure on RCB towards the back end of the innings to ensure that DC got the flourish that they needed at the end.
Kapp put on 48 vital runs for the fifth wicket with Jess Jonasson which propelled DC to a towering score of 194 for 5 in their 20 overs. It was a score that RCB would have felt was 20 runs more than what they would have liked to have chased in the second innings.
However, when RCB came out to chase the score, it was the DC bowlers who were made to sweat by Smriti Mandhana, who was well-and-truly batting in the zone. No bowler was spared from the onslaught during the Powerplay and Meg Lanning was searching for the bowler, who would have the clutch to send Mandhana back to the pavilion.
To be honest, Lanning could have looked for 1,000 bowlers if they were available but above each one of them, her heart and her mind would have veered towards one name to do the job.
Kapp was brought back into the attack in the 12th over of the innings to get THE wicket and after conceding 14 runs of the first five deliveries, it did not look like the decision had paid dividends.
But off the last ball of the over, Kapp proved to Lanning that her reintroduction into the attack was the right decision. After trying to bowl at pace right through the over, the South African decided to lower her speeds and slipped in the slower, short ball on middle and off stump.
Mandhana opted to give room to play the ball through the off side, but missed the orb, which crashed onto the off stump, much to the delight of all her DC teammates.
It was a killer blow for RCB at that stage of the innings and as it turned out a hammer blow for the hosts in the end, as they went on to lose the match by 25 runs. They had not just suffered a defeat at the hands of DC, but also seen the best of the franchises’ MVP.
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