Royal Challengers Bangalore all-rounder Sophie Devine hopes to provide strong starts with her captain Smriti Mandhana in the Women’s Premier League (WPL). However, RCB suffered a third consecutive defeat in the inaugural edition of the WPL after losing to Gujarat Giants by 11 runs. After the loss, Devine said that Mandhana wanted to score more runs and a big partnership between them was just around the corner.

“I would certainly like us to go a little bit deeper and score a few more runs. The great thing about these sort of competition is that you get to bat with world-class players and Smriti is really outstanding,” Devine said in the press conference. “She (targets) different areas obviously because she is a left-handed, it makes a big difference, and it is really a good combination at the top of the order. I know she wants to score more runs, I want to score more runs, and hopefully we keep bouncing off each other and a really big partnership is just around the corner.”

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However, RCB played far too many dot balls while chasing a huge target of 202 and did not hit a single six until the 14th over as well.

“Obviously not, because we did not win,’ said Devine when asked if RCB missed a trick by not clearing the boundary ropes often. “I think to pinpoint (a reason for loss) is pretty tough, to nail it down to one thing, but I think probably our dot balls (were too many). And it is going to happen sometimes you have to give the credit to the bowlers who bowled some great deliveries,” Sophie Devine stated.

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“But still we have shown how can you get those dot balls to be even those singles. In games like this you get back and look at every single ball you think could I have got a run there or could we have pushed for two. “It is really disappointing but I think we have shown real improvement from game to game,” Sophie Devine concluded.