Richa Ghosh on the reason for her match-winning knock as defending champs RCB open their campaign with victory.
Richa Ghosh credits RCB’s match simulations for Vadodara heist.
Despite Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s unsatisfactory debut, skipper Smriti Mandhana expressed her happiness at being on the winning team. After giving up the fourth-highest WPL total, her team, the reigning champions, went one step further and thrillingly chased down 202. Mandhana praised her middle order for producing after an early hiccup, and they mostly credited Richa Ghosh, Kanika Ahuja, and Ellyse Perry for this.
“It was brilliant to watch,” Mandhana, who was out for 9 in the second over of the chase, said after the game. “They [Ahuja and Ghosh] have been doing that in the nets in the last seven to eight days to all our bowlers. So, really happy that things clicked on. But yeah, I think after the first innings we knew with the dew coming, it was going to be tough to bowl. So we always thought that we were in the game.
Ghosh took her time at first, scoring only 15 runs in her first 12 balls. She later stated that she was able to handle the high-pressure situation because she had done a lot of match simulation before to the competition.
“The plan was to take some time, and see how the pitch is reacting,” Ghosh said. “I wanted to take it deep, and I focused on my game. We [Ahuja and I] thought we could get to the total, and that we would play a positive game.
“The preparation we did with sir [head coach Luke Williams] really helped us. We had a lot of match situation during practice matches. We kept targets that if the situation is so and so then what should we be doing. That helped me a lot.”
“Yes, the boundaries were uneven, but I didn’t have that in mind. I knew I could clear [the boundaries] so I was just reacting as the ball came.”