Rajasthan Royals (RR) copped a crushing nine-wicket defeat at the hands of Gujarat Titans (GT) in Match 48 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Friday (May 5).
Opting to bat first, the hosts got bowled out for a below-par 118 in 17.5 overs. It was a listless batting display from the Royals as only one batter went past 15 runs.
In reply, the defending champions overhauled the target in just 13.5 overs. It didn’t seem like the two teams batted on the same surface.
The Titans got off to a brilliant start as the duo of Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill added 71 runs for the opening wicket. While Gill got out after making 36, Saha (41* off 34) held the one end firmly and scored the remaining runs alongside skipper Hardik Pandya (39* off 15) to take GT over the finishing line.
After the game, RR’s director of cricket and head coach Kumar Sangakkara called his team’s performance “embarrassing” but backed the side to bounce back. It was Royals’ fourth defeat in the last five games.
“It is embarrassing for anyone when you don’t play well,” Sangakkara said in the post-match press conference.
“We were very, very poor in terms of capitalising on the starts we got. We were showing intent for a while, but we were a little bit reckless, and then we had very, very little intent against the two spinners. Rashid bowled brilliantly, I thought Noor bowled really well as well, but that’s the time the batters need to step up and show more and more intent.
“Even a defence in T20 cricket has to have the intent of wanting to score. You work down the sequence of 6, 4, 3, 2, 1; or, if you’re under pressure, you go 4, 3, 2, 1. But you are always looking for opportunities to score, and at the minimum, getting off strike.
“And once that intent is shown, it doesn’t matter how good a bowler you are, you are always thinking that you can’t give the batter anything loose because you’re going to get put away. So that’s one area that we’ve got to really look at.”
Afghan spin duo of Rashid Khan (3-14) and Noor Ahmad (2-25) were the wrecker-in-chief with the ball, sharing five wickets between them.
Sangakkara had special praise reserved for Noor’s performance. “The young man showed a lot of character. He didn’t have the greatest in terms of his first outing against us, but since then he has bowled exceptionally well.”
“Again, it is just how you arrange your game against… so-called mystery spinners. And if you show intent, you see that Noor, with a lack of experience, can bowl balls that are hittable but you’ve got to get that rhythm going off rotation of strike, putting the bad balls away and constantly reversing pressure on the bowler.”
“You can’t sit and wait in T20 cricket and let the bowlers bowl to us. But having said that, both Rashid and Noor bowled exceptionally well and not just that – their pace-bowling quartet came back into the game really well after not having the best of starts. So I think it’s all credit to Gujarat, the way they played, and we played a very poor game.”
RR opener Jos Buttler has managed only 93 runs in the last six games, but Sangakkara insisted that the former’s lack of form doesn’t reduce his quality as a player.
“For Jos, he had a great run last season,” Sangakkara said. “He started off really well and all batters go through a cold streak and a hot streak. It doesn’t reduce the quality of the player and over a longer period of time, you find with highly-skilled players that it all equalises.”
“It’s the same with Hetmyer. He’s been going through a rough patch after having started well again. But then that’s what a team is for. Other batters have to step up the slack and keep going and when they do fire it just adds to the impetus and the totals that we score. That’s just the nature of T20 cricket and the conversations have been very good. They’ve been fantastic in the team environment and I know that they’re trying their best to do as well as they can.”
(The Indian Express Inputs)
