Everything, everywhere, all in Devine hands

Sophie Devine is everywhere. She's opening the batting, closing out games with the ball, prowling the ring, talking tactics between overs, and somehow finding time for lighter moments too. But with her game, there is no particular method. Her success in T20 cricket has been defined by her ability to force the opposition to react faster than they'd like.

She's been doing it for 20 years, once as a bowler who batted in the lower-middle order, then steadily evolving into a top-order player, and ultimately, becoming the all-round force she is right now. On Sunday, a WPL match that twisted and turned remained under her imprint from the first over to the last ball.

At the end of the night, when Gujarat Giants captain Ash Gardner turned to her, Delhi Capitals needed just seven off the last over. At the crease were Laura Wolvaardt and Jemimah Rodrigues, the pair who had dragged the chase back from trouble.

Devine missed her length with a full toss first up, but Wolvaardt could manage only a single to deep midwicket. Before the next delivery, Devine walked over for an extended conversation with Gardner and had fine leg and long-on put in place. She then bowled a slower ball outside off, tempting Rodrigues into the sweep, who could only glove it through to the wicketkeeper. The contact was uncertain but UltraEdge settled the debate, and Devine helped Giants wrest back control.

DY Patil is a ground where dew, history and chasing sides all conspire against bowlers. In the first game of the season, 20 runs were scored off the last four balls as Royal Challengers Bengaluru sealed a thriller against Mumbai Indians. Even Giants had needed a 26-run cushion in the final over in their previous game, Devine finishing the job but not without damage. This time, the equation was down to five required from two balls, with Wolvaardt on strike.

Once more, the field was adjusted after a long chat: extra cover pushed back, with long-off, long-on and deep midwicket all in place. Wolvaardt had been targeting the midwicket region all evening, and Devine bowled a slower one again, outside off, inviting the shot she wanted her to play. Wolvaardt obliged, but was done in by the lack of pace as the ball headed towards Georgia Wareham, who ran in from deep midwicket to complete the catch. A big moment, a match-changing one under pressure, delivered by Devine again.

She put all that down to experience, adding that having the ball in hand rather than the bat eased the tension. "I guess I've probably been lucky that I've played for a while now," Devine said at the post-match presentation. "I guess, just taking each situation as it comes and trying to be really level with it. I think today it probably wasn't in my favour that last over, and that almost took a little bit of the pressure off in a funny way that they were the ones that had to score the runs.

"I think that sort of comes with experience and just trying to stay really level and back my skillset. I think that's something that can sometimes go out the window when you're under pressure or you want to do so well. It doesn't matter if you've played one game or 100 games. To be able to go out there and perform for your team, that's what's really pleasing."

Rewind to the first innings and the theme remains unchanged: another day, another reminder of what Devine can do with the bat. She is a power-hitter, but reducing her batting to just brute force misses the point. She has range, game awareness, and knows when to shift gears. She doesn't merely wait for errors but amplifies them.

Early on, she was a relatively sedate 15 off 11, aided by a couple of misfields that raced away to the boundary. When Nandani Sharma missed her length, Devine responded instantly, swinging through the line and sending the ball back over the bowler's head for six. That was just a warning.

A few quiet deliveries later, Devine decided not to be subtle anymore. The final powerplay over began with a flick through midwicket, followed by a spilled chance at cover, and then dissolved into pure carnage. Devine danced, rocked back, cleared her front leg, and repeatedly found the leg-side boundary. Sneh Rana kept looping it up in hope and Devine kept sending it back harder. By the time a full toss disappeared into the night, 32 runs had come off that over, making it the most expensive one in WPL history.

That opened the floodgates, and N Shree Charani did little to stem the flow. Devine waited out the variations, briefly miscuing one slower ball, and then resumed her demolition with greater conviction. Anything drifting into her arc on middle and leg was treated with force, swung through and dispatched into the stands at deep midwicket and long-on. Rodrigues was frantically walking back and forth to discuss with the bowler. By the end of that over - the ninth of the innings - it was no longer about field settings or bowling plans, but about how long Devine would allow DC to survive.

She finally fell, edging Nandani to short fine leg for 95, also denying WPL its first-ever century. It was reminiscent of her 99 off just 36, in an epic chase for RCB in 2023, incidentally against Giants at that time.

Devine seemed relaxed through all of it, but did she feel that way? "I certainly think it helps the wickets that we're playing on," she said. "You can play with a real sense of freedom and you can trust the bounce and just hit through the ball. I think there are times early on batting with Moons [Beth Mooney], it's really nice. Having played so much with her at the Perth Scorchers [in the WBBL], it's nice to have that familiarity down the other end. So for me, it's nice just to have her there to stay in my ear a little bit, to keep calm and not trying to swing too hard."

In a match where momentum swung wildly, Devine was part of almost every decisive moment: the brutal innings, a sharp catch to remove Lizelle Lee during the chase, and the nerve to close out the final over herself. Twenty years in the format, still going strong.