The Rajasthan Royals (RR) cannot buy a win in front of their home crowd in Jaipur. This is their third loss in as many games and 7th loss in their last 8 games if we consider the last two seasons. While they aced the conditions in Guwahati, the Jaipur conditions have not suited them so far. Last night, they decided to chase and were beaten in all facets of the game by the Gujarat Titans (GT) as they went to second in the points table. RR slip down to 5th place and out of the top 4. We will look at areas where RR went wrong so that they can improve their performance in the remaining fixtures.
Inability to take early wickets and allow the opening stand to bat for 11 overs dents their chances
Rajasthan Royals (RR) opted to bowl first, and the main aim would have been to keep things tight and take early wickets, as we all know GT’s main template is their top 3 and ideally 2 of them firing. But the RR bowlers were just way off the mark, led by Jofra Archer. They say the first over really sets the tone for the match. Archer bowled wides like it was for fun, and GT got the momentum from there. Once they got on a roll, there was no looking back.
With Nandre Burger not playing, the bowling was reduced to Indian bowlers barring Archer and the duo of Gill and Sudharsan made merry while the sun shone on them. They smashed 82 runs in the power play without breaking a sweat. Sudharsan and Gill complement each other really well, and they just really laid the base for the others to take advantage of later on. They played almost 11 overs and added 118 runs before Sai fell, but the damage was done as GT had the base in hand.
Gill carried on and batted deep while Jos Buttler scored a quick cameo. Washington Sundar made an important contribution, while Rahul Tewatia made an important contribution as well. It meant GT got to 229, which was a big score and with bowling their strength, they defended it really well. RR has issues cropping up and needs to strengthen their bowling if they want to qualify for the playoffs. Their playoff spot is in danger now, for sure we can say.
Losing wickets at regular intervals inside the power play and beyond sealed the fate of RR
Chasing 230 was always going to be a challenging task for the RR batters against a potent GT bowling line-up. The RR showed flashes of brilliance, but were not consistent enough to seal the chase. Young teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi gave the team a flying start, scoring 36 off 16 balls as RR made 38 inside 3 overs. But he soon fell to Siraj, then the RR team played their shots but lost wickets in clusters. Stand-in captain Yashasvi Jaiswal was bereft of strike and fell for a low score, while Hetmyer disappointed again as RR scored 78 in the power play but were 3 wickets down.
So, they were playing catch-up cricket for most of the time after that, and we saw a steady fall of wickets at regular intervals after that. Dhruv Jurel got a start, but he too fell. Donovan Ferreira also fell cheaply. Ravindra Jadeja tried and had a good game as an individual, as he picked up a wicket and bowled better than the rest of the bowlers. He scored 38 runs as well. Shubham Dubey fell as well. After Jadeja’s dismissal, it was a matter of time before the game ended.
Rashid Khan, Jason Holder and Kagiso Rabada destroyed RR, taking 9 wickets between them, with Rashid taking 4, Holder 3, and Rabada 2. RR needs to have better planning and must come out with a better mindset in order to revive their campaign. All is not lost yet; it’s just that they are in sticky waters now and must start winning again, especially at home.
Jofra Archer and Yashasvi Jaiswal both had off-days, hampering RRÂ
Another important aspect to note was the rare off-day of two talisman players of RR. Their spearhead Jofra Archer went for runs and did not pick up a wicket, while Yashasvi Jaiswal, the stand-in captain, also had a rare off day with the bat in hand. These two underperformers meant that RR were under the pump and never recovered. You want your key players to perform in big-ticket games. But both failures meant RR were looking everywhere, and with Riyan Parag out injured, it compounded their problems.
Jofra Archer had the new ball in hand and delivered a lot of wides in the opening over. That really set the tone for the match ahead. Archer, who was so good with the new ball, was rendered ineffective. As soon as he bowled a long first over, Archer’s confidence was shattered, which helped the batters of GT. This was really unfortunate, and once Archer was neutralised, the others were there to be taken. Yes, Jadeja bowled well, but the rest went the distance.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, the stand-in captain, was starved off the strike initially when Vaibhav was going great guns. But once Vaibhav fell, Jaiswal came on strike and got out soon after inside the power play overs. It meant that the team was under pressure early in a big chase, and there was no senior batter to guide the innings. The innings never had momentum, and RR never looked like getting to the target, eventually losing by 77 runs.
Both these key players will have to bounce back sooner rather than later for RR to revive their campaign with 3 matches left. The form of Archer and Jaiswal will be crucial in that.
What Lies Ahead
So, RR now slips to 5th place while GT climbs to 2nd in the table. RR next faces DC in New Delhi in a week, while GT hosts SRH soon. Two important games are coming up today on Super Sunday. First up, it’s CSK vs LSG live from Chennai at 3:30 PM IST, and then we move to Raipur for RCB in action against MI in another high-ticket game. Let’s see who comes out on top and how the points table shapes up from here.
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