'We have leaked too many runs in the field while bowling and fielding and probably are not putting enough on the board.'
Royal Challengers Bangalore bowler Megan Schutt admitted that her side has not been good enough in WPL 2023 as they remained rooted at the bottom after five straight defeats in the tournament.
RCB are winless in the Women's Premier League so far as they suffered a six-wicket loss to Delhi Capitals at DY Patil stadium in Navi Mumbai on Monday.
"Yeah it hurts, I am not going to lie. We improved in a lot of areas today and showed a lot of fire which is something we have not done in previous matches," Schutt said after the match.
"The change of venues was nice to be honest but unfortunately not enough runs on the board today. A few big overs changed the game a bit," she added, talking about the Brabourne Stadium where the team lost the first four matches.
Invited to bat, RCB posted 150/4 with Ellyse Perry top-scoring with a 52-ball 67 not out, but Delhi Capitals chased down the target with two balls to spare.
RCB face an impossible task as far as qualifying for the play-offs is concerned, though they still have a mathematical chance.
Schutt, who took 1/24, said the pitch was a tough one to bat on and Delhi bowlers led by Marizanne Kapp did well.
"It was a big toss to lose. Even in my warm-up overs prior to the game I could tell there was a little bit of tack in the wicket," said the star Australia pace bowler.
"It was a tough wicket to begin with, Kappy is a world-class bowler as are a few others in their squad. Got to give credit to that as well, they bowled some terrific lines, the cutters were really holding in the wicket there. I think the intent was there, unfortunately we hit (to the) fielders too many times and (played) too many dots," she added.
Schutt refused to put the blame on captain Smriti Mandhana, whose lack of runs at the top has been one of the main reasons for RCB's poor show so far.
"It has been a whole team effort in a way. We have leaked too many runs in the field while bowling and fielding and probably are not putting enough on the board. I think we cannot put it down to any single person's performance," she said.
"Richa (Ghosh) was short of runs and today she batted like the way I have seen her bat for India so many times, so again that is short-format cricket. It is fickle, you cannot come off performance in every single game. (I am) not going to pin that on one player alone but I think we need to be collectively 10-15 per cent better," Schutt added.
Delhi Capitals and England player Alice Capsey said she was happy to contribute to the team's win.
"It was a great win. You want to get on the right side of these kinds of games. The way Marizanne and Jess (batted), how calm they were, it was brilliant," said Capsey, who made 38 off 24 balls with the help of eight boundaries.
"I was a bit short of runs in this tournament so it was nice to contribute to the team's win. Obviously it was nice to get a few boundaries and get us ahead in the Powerplay. The spinners got a little bit of purchase off the pitch when they slowed the ball down but it was overall a nice pitch," she added.
