India international and Delhi Capitals opener Shafali Verma was relieved that she finally notched up her first half-century of the ongoing Women’s Premier League season, which came during DC’s nine-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.
“My aim was to first score a fifty because I was getting out in the forties. I was really happy that I got the half-century and remained not out,” Shafali told reporters after the match.
She entered the fixture on the back of her scorecard reading 43, 0, 26, 24, 44, and 43. According to the 21-year-old, the consecutive matches on back-to-back days helped her get out of the nervous forties.
“We did play the previous night but as batters, we all start at 0 the next innings. Yes, if I’ve played a good knock in the previous match and I don’t get to rest much then that helps me. My mindset was pretty good,” she said.
Similar to DC’s win against Gujarat Giants earlier this week, Shafali stitched up a match-winning partnership with Jess Jonassen, who came in at No. 3 after her compatriot and captain Meg Lanning got out cheaply.
Shafali and Jonassen notched up an unbeaten 146-run stand which was the highest partnership for the second wicket in WPL.
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“Playing with JJ [Jonassen] is really fun because she also comes from Australia and has that good mindset. We were just trying to take singles when the boundaries weren’t coming. The best part was that we were listening to each other which helped us stay till the end,” the Indian batter said of her teammate.
While Jonassen came good with the bat once again for the Capitals, Lanning’s form in this WPL has been hot and cold. After scoring that unbeaten 60 against Mumbai Indians en route to victory on Friday, the former Australia skipper scored just two against RCB. Despite this rough patch, Shafali has learned a lot from her DC captain.
“When a player does well, people will applaud them. But when the going gets tough, they have to back themselves every day. The ability to back yourself during a bad phase has been my biggest learning playing with Meg,” Shafali explained.
With this win against the defending champion, the Capitals confirmed its qualification to the playoffs and now has almost a week’s gap before playing its final league stage match when it faces Gujarat Giants in Lucknow.
“Our planning has been executed well so far and touch wood, it will continue,” the Indian batter said.