Michael Klinger, the head coach of Gujarat Giants, pinned the blame of his team's loss against Mumbai Indians on Tuesday on the tactical errors made by the batters. He defended the aggressive mindset, which proved counterproductive on the match day as the team was bundled out for 120. However, he praised the bowlers for keeping the team in the hunt for as long as they could, even as MI cantered to a five-wicket win with 23 balls to spare.
Put in to bat, Giants were reduced to 28 for 4 within the powerplay. They were playing catchup since that point, and no hopes of a revival were nipped in the bud by the spin duo of Amelia Kerr and Hayley Matthews.
"The powerplay didn't go according to plan, did it? Losing four wickets, obviously Ash off the last ball of the power play, it's always tough to come back from that," Klinger said. "We do bat pretty deep though, so probably from the end of the powerplay we did pretty well to get to 120. In saying that, a couple more lengthy partnerships could have been the difference to get us to 140-145 and I think we may have been in the game with that.
"But as you've seen here, it is difficult defending anything really, obviously 120 is just not enough. But it does get very wet out there and fielding becomes a little bit more difficult and bowling becomes a little more difficult. But I thought our bowlers did a great job to give us a little bit of a sniff to win with about six or seven overs to go.
"But it's always tough when you're defending a 120 score. It was more, not so much a mindset thing, probably just more a tactical strategy thing where maybe they could try to access different areas or look to target the other side, the shorter side. So in terms of their mindset, we're happy with them playing aggressive cricket. Maybe just tactically and strategy can be a little bit better next time."
It was Giants' fifth straight loss against Mumbai Indians, a team they have never beaten in WPL history. More importantly, the encounter against MI was also their last of the home leg in Vadodara. They now head to Bengaluru for the next leg of the tournament having won only one out of their three games so far.
However, Klinger believes there is still ample time in the competition for them to make a comeback and be in the top-three. Giants now have six days of rest before their next game, and they would be keen to return an improved side.
"I would have loved to come out of here, obviously two in three games, but after losing the first one and winning the other night, it would have been nice to come out in front of our home crowd and win again and go to Bangalore with two wins," he admitted. "But we go there with one win, it's certainly one more than we had this time last year.
"All it takes is to get on a bit of a roll of a couple of wins in a row and you're right up there in the top couple again. So we'll take some learnings from tonight, no doubt. But we've got six days off now to reset again for the Bangalore leg. So we're looking forward to that."
Klinger also praised the performance of Kashvee Gautam, who stroked a 17-ball 20, and offered hope of a revival for Giants. The brief cameo was impressive enough for the coach to believe that she has the potential to improve and move higher up in the batting order.
"I thought Kashvee with the bat, we put her up a spot just to hold Simran back towards the back end. And I thought she was fantastic. We know how well she can play. In the nets and in the training camp, she's looked fantastic. She can play two ways. She can play nice strong shots and she can hit big. She charged Shabnim Ismail, one of the world's best bowlers, and hit her back over her head. So she's got so much talent.
"To get 20 in her first game, if anything, something of her learning is when she gets that opportunity to bat a little bit higher, maybe take it and get a 40, 50-plus score. But she'll learn from that. She's a great talent and she's only going to get better every game she plays."
It was also the first win of the season for Mumbai Indians, the champions of the inaugural season. For as much as Klinger believed his bowlers gave the team a sniff at winning, MI put up a dominant all-round show with the bat. Chasing 121 for victory, Nat Sciver-Brunt, who had bagged two wickets with the ball in the powerplay, stroked yet another half-century to ensure the side didn't panic in the run-chase.Matthews, who was the pick of the bowlers from Mumbai Indians, admitted that the side was 'hungry' after having narrowly lost their opening encounter of the season against Delhi Capitals in a last-ball finish.
"We were pretty hungry. We knew it was going to be a very important match. The first game definitely did hurt how close it was. Knowing that it was a situation where we could have been one [win] from one [game]. But yeah, at the same time, we just wanted to stay really calm.
"We know the quality of players that we have within the dressing room. And that on our day, we're capable of beating any team. So yeah, we're all just pretty happy that we got our plans correct today and we were also able to execute them really well."