Kapp and Radha - A dance of pace and spin

Bowling in the PowerPlay brings out the best in Marizanne Kapp, and her prowess here has been consistently impressive. Therefore, it was no shock when she swiftly dismissed the top three UP Warriorz batters in Bengaluru on Monday, very quickly adding a touch of inevitability to the outcome of the match.

Kapp's first wicket was Vrinda Dinesh, who got one full and outside off in the third over that she looked to cash in on but ended up slicing a catch to third man. What forced Vrinda into that shot had a lot to do with how Kapp operated earlier. It started with a one-run opening over in which the South African relentlessly hit good and short-of-good-length areas. The fresh pitch used for this game also played a bit sticky up front, which meant stroke making wasn't that easy.

After Vrinda's dismissal, which happened off the second ball of the third over, Kapp bowled four deliveries to Tahlia McGrath. Operating on the channel outside off-stump, she had the batter beaten on the cut three times. McGrath was on strike at the start of Kapp's next over and the bowler continued with this back of length strategy, but this time got the ball to pitch on middle and off and got it to curve away, squaring the batter up and striking the off stump.

For Alyssa Healy, Kapp bowled fuller and it was the late away movement that led to the downfall of the Warriorz skipper as she came down the track and ended up miscuing the ball. Having taken three wickets in three overs, Kapp was bowled out by her captain Meg Lanning but not before the fast bowler tested both Grace Harris and Shweta Sehrawat, before finishing with exceptional figures of 3 for 5 from her four overs, much to the delight of her partner Dane van Niekerk, who was all smiles in the stands sporting a Delhi Capitals jersey.

"It's always been...wherever I've been playing, whether that's international cricket or in leagues, I'm probably better off bowling with the new ball," said Kapp about her four straight overs that rattled the Warriorz. So we always look to give me as many overs with the new ball, especially when it's going well. With these teams, especially, you want to keep on attacking if you have one or two wickets down. So it's a plan we have. We have very good death bowlers, so that allows me to bowl upfront more with the new ball."

With a mere 33 runs on the scoreboard after nine overs, the Warriorz found themselves in a dilemma following Kapp's remarkable spell. They were torn between consolidating their position and risking a meagre total, or opting for aggression and risking losing wickets. It was at this critical juncture that Radha Yadav was introduced into the attack. Both Grace Harris and Kiran Navgire chose the latter option, attacking the left-arm spinner. Harris managed to strike a boundary and Navgire smashed a six, in separate overs. However, their attempts to replicate these shots led to their downfall as Radha seized control of the latter half of the innings, further denting the Warriorz.

From 57/5 in 12 overs, the Warriorz managed to get to 108/6 in 17, thanks to Shweta Sehrawat picking up pace and finding the much-needed boundaries. But Radha, like with the previous two dismissals, didn't shy away from giving the ball air and, as a result, also accounted for Sehrawat, who was stumped for 45. Radha even bowled the final over and picked up the wicket of Sophie Ecclestone, again with a tossed up delivery that was miscued by the batter. Her 4 for 20, in many ways, was the perfect follow up to Kapp's PowerPlay exploits.

"Marizanne, she bowled nicely, (but) I thought we could have put her under more pressure and we probably played with a little bit too much respect at times," felt Warriorz head coach Jon Lewis, who also defended the shot selection when the likes of Harris and Navgire got out to Radha going for big shots.

"At that point of the game, we needed to accelerate. I suppose I was a little bit disappointed in the period when Grace and Shweta were, traditionally call it, rebuilding the innings. I thought at that point as well we could have been more aggressive. So when I went out at the strategic timeout, I asked them to be a little bit more proactive in the way they were playing and straightaway you could see the change of tempo in the game - they were starting to play some shots and actually we started to score more freely.

"I'd rather we got out trying to score than post a 100 or 110. I know we only ended up getting 120 (119) but we got ourselves in a position where we could have got 140. And then with a fair wind at that time, you could actually maybe even get to 150. I think if we got that score we would have been competitive," noted Lewis.

Looking beyond hindsight, it was the formidable combination of Kapp and Radha that proved insurmountable for the Warriorz, restricting them to a mere 119/9. On evidence of Monday's events, they are unlikely to be the only team to find this pace-spin duet difficult to contend with.