Vadodara (Gujarat) [India], January 19 : After her side's 61-run loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to start off the home leg at Vadodara, the Gujarat Giants (GG) skipper Ashleigh Gardner admitted to being "frustrated" at not being able to win "small moments" and added that she was angry the whole time she was out in the the middle, trying to hit the ball too hard.
While RCB continued their monumental Women's Premier League (WPL) run with their fifth successive win to reach the playoffs, GG's road to playoffs faced another massive roadblock as they fell to their third successive win after a winning start, slipping to fourth spot in the points table. With the Mumbai Indians (MI) and UP Warriorz (UPW) also having the same win-loss record, the other two playoff spots are yet to be filled.
Speaking during the post-match presentation, Gardner, who had hit a fifty, said, "It is pretty frustrating. I just feel we are not winning the small moments. We need to win these last three games, but overall pretty frustrating. If you look at our dismissals, we were going across the line (instead of playing with straight bat). I guess the way we need to go forward is to try and play really straight. A lot of the positive options were down the ground, so you give yourself the best chance even when the ball does stay low.
Speaking on getting the prized wicket of RCB skipper Smriti Mandhana, she pointed it to the good match-up she enjoys against the Indian star.
On her knock, she said, "I was pretty angry out there to be quite honest. I was just really frustrated. I was either hitting good shots to fielders or missing the ball. Upon reflection, I was trying to hit the ball too hard."
Coming to the match, GG opted to field first against RCB. Gautami Naik (73 in 55 balls, with seven fours and a six) had useful partnerships with skipper Smriti (26 in 23 balls, with four boundaries) and Richa Ghosh (27 in 20 balls, with three sixes) as RCB posted 178/6 in 20 overs, with Kashvee Gautam (2/38) and Gardner (2/43) being the top bowlers. During the defence of 179 runs, RCB reduced GG to 48/5. Gardner did score a well-fought 43-ball 54, with five fours and a six, RCB restricted them to 117/8, with Sayali Sathghare (3/21), Nadine de Klerk (2/17) and Lauren Bell (1/23) bowling sensational four-over spells, and Gautami taking the 'Player of the Match' award.