RR faced their 8th defeat this year while chasing. This time RR failed to chase down 220 runs & lost the match by 10 runs. They lost most of them from the winning position due to middle-order failure. Had they managed to win at least 5 out of those 8 matches, they would have been in the playoffs race right now. Let’s look at the key reasons for RR’s defeat.
Poor Bowling strategies
RR’s bowling strategy was really poor in this match. They missed the services of Jofra Archer. He was that one bowler in the RR unit who could create a fear factor in the batters. Fazalhaq Farooqi was not at all effective. There is no swing in the pitch and he couldn’t create any impact.
Short-ball tactics
None of the RR fast bowlers have that extra pace, but they kept on trying short ball against Nehal Wadhera. He smashed all of them into the stands. They were keep on attacking on the stumps and giving the ball within the range for the batters to hit.
They didn’t try outside the off-stump yorkers and slower ones for a long time. Akash Madhwal bowled one ball wide outside the off stump and made Nehal Wadhera stretch, as he couldn’t middle the ball and was caught by Shimron Hetmyer in the deep covers.
The team score was 159/5 in 16 overs at that time and Nehal Wadhera smashed 70 runs off just 37 balls.
Akash Madhwal is also known for his yorkers, but he couldn’t execute them properly. He went for 48 runs in his 4 overs. Even their prime spinner, Hasaranga, was not effective as he went for 33 runs in his 3 overs. Nehal Wadhera tackled him well in the middle overs.
They made a mistake while picking the playing X1. It was a slow dry pitch with not much bounce or grass and they played four fast bowlers and jus one main spinner with Ryan Parag being their second spinner. They should have gone with Mahesh Theekshana or Kumar Karthikeya in place of Fazalhaq Farooqi or Kwena Maphaka.
Shut down overs
RR couldn’t bowl a shut down over or put the batters under pressure at any phase of the innings. PBKS were scoring a boundary on an average of every one over 10 balls. They targeted the first ball of every over for a boundary and put the bowler under pressure for the rest of the overs.
The two PBKS spinners, Harpreet Brar and Yuzvendra Chahal, played a crucial role in slowing down the run rate in the middle overs. They both gave just 52 runs in their 8 overs combined and took 3 wickets. All those 3 wickets belong to Harpreet Brar ( 4-22-3 ). Chahal did the job of containing the run flow ( 4-30-0 ).
Middle order failure
Another chapter of middle order bottling the chase for the Royals in this season. The openers gave the best opening a team can get while chasing 220. They gave a start of 76 runs in just 4.5 overs. Vaibhav Suryavanshi scored 40 runs of just 15 balls.
Another opener, Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 50 runs of just 25 balls. He was dismissed when the team score was 109 in 8.4 overs. After that they struggled to maintain the momentum in the chase. PBKS spinners bowled some tight overs and put pressure on RR batters.
Dhruv Jurel looked in good touch but didn’t get enough support from the other end. Captain Sanju Samson ( 20 off 16 ), Riyan Parag ( 13 off 11 ) and Shimron Hetmyer ( 11 off 12 ) struggled to time the ball and it affected the momentum in the chase.
Jurel’s half-century ( 53 off 31 ), only helped the team to reduce the margin of defeat. RR lost the match by 10 runs.
Also Read:Â DC vs GT: Reasons For DC’s Defeat Against GT