Rajasthan Royals (RR) coach Andrew McDonald is still confident that Royals can still make the playoffs of the ongoing IPL 2020 in the UAE even after a massive 8-wicket defeat at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Thursday (October 22) at Dubai International Stadium.
Royals suffered its 7th defeat of the ongoing season on Thursday against the SRH and are currently placed at 7th place in the points table with 8 points from 11 games and they have almost lost the chances for the playoffs but McDonald is still optimistic about the team’s chances.
Now, RR has three games to give themselves any chance to qualify for IPL 13 playoffs and McDonald said Royals have their goal clear to win all those games. He said the teams that have nothing to lose are “quite dangerous” and they must be looking to be one of those at the backend of the T20 league.
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McDonald said at the post-match press conference: “The challenge ahead is pretty clear and that is to win three in a row and see where that net run-rate gets us. I still think that potential seven wins can get you through. For us, it is about continuing to prepare and continuing to believe that we are good enough.”
He added, “We have shown throughout the tournament that we can play cricket that can compete with the best and also, win against them. I think teams that have nothing to lose can be quite dangerous at the backend of the tournament. So, we will be looking to be one of those teams.”
Meanwhile, the RR coach credited Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar who played unbeaten knocks of 83 and 52 to power SRH to a comfortable win over Steve Smith-led team on Thursday.
McDonald explained, “You have to give credit to the two batters, they played extremely well. I think we had enough pressure on them with those two early wickets. It was an extremely good partnership, so full credit to the two batsmen at the crease.”
He signed off by saying, “...If you look at the comparison between the two teams, it is that those two batsmen got fifty, we did not have anyone going past fifty. If you narrow it down to what went wrong in the batting innings, we did not have that solid contribution of a fifty-run score.”
(With ANI Inputs)
