Question

'The team more than 300 runs in 20 overs rains. However, some players needed to improve their batting skills.'
Choose the option with the correct sequence of words to fill the blanks.

• A. score; despite
• B. scoring; instead of
• C. scored; despite
• D. scoring; in spite of

Hint:

Match the verb tense to "needed" later in the passage, then pick the connector that means "even though," not "in place of."

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Step 1: Look at the tense of the sentence.
The second sentence says "some players needed to improve their batting skills," which is in the simple past tense.
For the two sentences to describe the same past event, the first blank must also take a simple past verb form, not a bare form or an -ing form.
Only "scored" is a full simple past verb; "score" and "scoring" cannot stand alone as the main verb of the clause "The team ___ more than 300 runs."

Step 2: Check the linking word before "rains."
The word after the blank, "rains," is a plain noun (meaning rain showers), not a clause with a subject and verb.
A preposition that takes a noun object is needed here, and both "despite" and "in spite of" work grammatically before a noun.
"Instead of" changes the meaning to a substitution ("in place of"), which does not fit: the team is not scoring runs in place of rain, it is scoring runs even though it rained.

Step 3: Pick the option with the correct verb and the correct connector.
Option (A) uses "score," which is not a valid past tense main verb here.
Option (B) uses "scoring" and "instead of," both wrong for the reasons above.
Option (D) uses "scoring," which again cannot be the main verb of the sentence.
Option (C), "scored; despite," gives a complete, correctly tensed sentence: "The team scored more than 300 runs in 20 overs despite rains."

Final Answer:
The correct sequence of words is "scored; despite," which is option (C). \[ \boxed{\text{Option (C): scored; despite}} \]