Our batters have to adapt to lower bounce: Warriorz’ skipper Lanning

Of the 11 matches that were held at the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai in the Women’s Premier League this year, there were six instances of the team batting first amassing a total in excess of 180. Though the Vadodara-leg has a small sample size, the highest total registered in the three matches at the Kotambi Stadium so far is Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s 178 for six against Gujarat Giants on January 19.

The last two games here have witnessed scores of 154 for five and 153 for eight by the teams batting first. In Thursday’s contest, Giants managed to clinch a comprehensive 45-run victory as UP Warriorz provided a meek riposte to a target of 154 and was bundled out for 108.

While Warriorz skipper Meg Lanning has pointed to the lower bounce vis-a-vis the pitches in Navi Mumbai as a challenge, she wants the batting unit to work out a solution.

“I think it’s more the bounce than anything else. The ball is just not bouncing as much as it did in Navi Mumbai. There was still a bit of pace in the pitch. We’ve seen batters be successful, perhaps sort of working out the conditions first and then accelerating from there. That seems to be the trend. You’ve just got to adapt and assess the conditions really quickly. You’ve just got to find a different way,” Lanning said in the post-match interaction.

Warriorz’s batters have blown hot and cold right through the tournament, which is responsible for their plight at the bottom of the standings with two wins in six outings. Lanning rued the lack of effective partnerships on Thursday.

“It’s about capitalising on the momentum that we get. Even tonight, we started to build some partnerships, but then we just lost wickets at crucial times. We haven’t been able to put the opposition under pressure for longer periods,” she assessed.