Gujarat Giants captain Beth Mooney on losing 2/2 WPL 2024 matches: 'We have to go back to the drawing board'

Gujarat Giants captain Beth Mooney. Tuesday’s defeat saw the Giants slump to the fifth place, with a net run-rate of -1.968. They play the UP Warriorz next, on Friday. (Image via X/wplt20)

Beth Mooney, captain of the Gujarat Giants, believes a better scoring rate and more judicious strokeplay tailored to the match situation in each phase of play could help change the Adani-owned team’s fortunes - the team have suffered two back-to-back defeats in their WPL 2024 campaign so far.

“I think perhaps we are just not taking the high-percentage options at the right time,” she told the host broadcaster after Giants’ eight-wicket loss to the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday. “Obviously, only getting to 108 – it’s a pretty low score in T20 cricket these days, so we have got to look to score off a few more balls in that middle period and at the start. We need, obviously, wickets in the shed at the back end as well. So, if we can do that, we can put up a competitive total of 140 or 150.”

After being sent in by opposition captain Smriti Mandhana, Giants lost half their side for just 70 runs. Only three of their batters – opener Harleen Deol (22), No. 6 D Hemalatha (31) and No. 8 Sneh Rana (12) – got into double digits as the Royal Challengers, led by Renuka Thakur and Sophie Molineux, who shared five wickets between them, restricted the Giants to 107 for 7.

“Defending a low total was always going to be hard on these wickets with the batting line-up that RCB have, so we have to go back to the drawing board and find out what works moving forward,” said Mooney, who followed up her 24 in the first game against the Mumbai Indians with 8 against the Royal Challengers.

Earlier, in a pre-match interview with broadcaster Mel Jones, Giants mentor Mithali Raj, reminiscing about the defeat to Mumbai, had hoped for more prudent decision-making on the part of her team's batters and “a little more awareness of the situation on the ground, how the game is progressing” in the future.

Raj, the former India captain who has been Giants’ mentor since the inaugural season, however, hoped for better returns from the team as the tournament progresses.

“I think this season we have an associate member (Kathryn Bryce),” she said. “So, definitely, she adds a lot to the 'team 11' team composition where she also bowls and gives us those runs at the end. And we got to see that in the first game.

“Tanuja Kanwar has really improved her batting. The last domestic season we've seen some of the games that she pulled purely on her batting performance. Yes, we definitely are looking forward to more performances from the top order.”

Tuesday’s defeat saw the Giants slump to the fifth place, with a net run-rate of -1.968. They play the UP Warriorz next, on Friday.