CHENNAI: The last 48 hours have been remarkable for franchise teams that don orange jerseys. On Sunday afternoon, Perth Scorchers cruised past Sydney Sixers to win their sixth Big Bash League title. A few hours later, about half a world away, Tristan Stubbs led Sunrisers Eastern Cape to their third SA20 trophy after an enthralling contest against Pretoria Capitals.
There is another orange team, camped in Vadodara, hoping to replicate the same in the next ten days — Gujarat Giants. Their all-rounder and former White Ferns captain Sophie Devine hopes so as well. "I certainly hope so," Devine says with a beaming smile. "It's obviously a great colour orange. Obviously I spent a fair bit of time playing in the Orange kit, but yeah, I certainly hope so. I think the Perth Scorchers men did a fantastic job. Obviously the women made it to the final as well and hopefully the Gujarat Giants can be there as well," added Devine, who led Perth Scorchers to WBBL final before they lost to Hobart Hurricanes.
Giants, meanwhile, kick-started the campaign with two wins before losing momentum. They ended up on the wrong side of the result thrice in a row before an all-round show from Devine got them back on winning track against UP Warriorz. It took some adjustments to understand the low and slow surface in Vadodara after the high-scoring games in DY Patil, but Giants are now very much in the play-off race.
Devine felt that in Vadodara, batters had to give some time to settle before accelerating. "Everyone has to be able to adjust and adapt to the different conditions. Obviously, they have been pretty different from what we experienced in Navi Mumbai. It is about how we can make those adjustments as quickly as possible and what we think is going to be effective on these types of wickets. I think we've seen across the games here in Baroda that you have to give yourself a little bit more time with the bat and it's not probably going to be quite as high scoring as some of the totals we saw at DY Patil Stadium," Devine explained, before adding, "It's certainly a lot nicer as a bowler in Baroda. The option to bowl obviously a few more variations and stay on the stumps, I think, that's been a key message throughout this whole tournament, regardless of the venue, is to keep the stumps in play."
Devine has been their star performer, leading both batting and bowling charts: 199 runs at 160.48 strike rate and 11 wickets at 16.09 average. However, there have been some crucial contributions from Indian players. Bharti Fulmali's consistency earned her the India recall, and Kashvee Gautam has shown why she is one of the promising all-round talents in the country. Then there was veteran Rajeshwari Gayakwad who single-handedly won a match for them. Devine credits Michael Klinger for bringing the team together. "I think you have seen with our batting order that having the local talent dispersed between the international players. It is a huge advantage being able to bat alongside them. It's really exciting to see the talent that is coming through. Even since the inception of the WPL a couple of years ago, the growth in the skill set has certainly improved. The power game is something that I have been really impressed with seeing players that can clear the rope pretty easy now is always a really exciting part. I think the bowlers as well are starting to add more strings to their bow in terms of different variations and being able to adapt and adjust to different conditions.
"I think it's more than that, though it's the training off the field where there's still a lot of room to grow in terms of the professional attitude and the work ethic that's required to step up to the next level. And hopefully, these young local domestic players are seeing that sort of rubbing shoulders with these overseas players and seeing how they train away from games and how much work needs to be put in to make sure you're at the top of your game is something that I think is only going to improve over time."
For now, however, the focus remains on winning the next two games and getting into the knockouts. "It's really exciting that the tournament is as close as it is. It pretty much is knockout games now and that provides opportunities for players to step up and to play under pressure. The great thing about this team is we've stayed really calm and really focused on what we can control. We know that if we win the next two games, we've a good chance of making that top three spot. So that's all we can control. We can't really worry too much about other teams or other results. So that's where our focus lies," Devine signed off.
