Rajasthan Royals head coach and director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara admitted that his batters got carried away in the power-play, resulting in them being reduced to 28/5 inside the powerplay and eventually crashed to 59 all out to suffer a 112-run defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
“Yes, it was a poor batting performance. I thought we bowled really well to keep them under 170, which was going to be a good chase on this pitch. We got a little bit carried away in the powerplay, thinking we had to score too many runs there, trying to be ultra-positive.”
“It was a case of trying to build partnerships, but unfortunately, coming out of the powerplay, we were five down, which was the end of the game,” said Sangakkara in the post-match press conference.
Chasing 172 on a slow pitch in their last home game at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Rajasthan’s dramatic batting collapse to be bowled out for 59 is also the third lowest innings total in the history of IPL. The loss also meant Rajasthan slipped to sixth place with 12 points from 13 matches.
With only one game left, against Punjab Kings at Dharamshala on Friday, their chances of reaching the playoffs look thin. Sangakkara also defended the shot selection of captain Sanju Samson, who fell after playing an across the line shot and got a top-edge to be caught out off Wayne Parnell.
“I think that was a shot that Sanju plays often. Sometimes, you don’t miss it, and sometimes, you do. He is an aggressive player and always plays for the side. In T20 cricket, you’re going to get out. Unfortunately, we lost too many wickets in the powerplay.”
“They didn’t get us out; we got ourselves out. That was very obvious. I don’t think it is a case of one person or one particular individual, it’s about the whole batting unit. I think we weren’t good enough. We’ll have to wait, have one game left, Unfortunately, now other results will have to go our way, we got to play for some pride and make sure we win it,” he concluded.
