GT faced a shocking defeat from RR by 8 wickets. They got bashed by a 14-year-old kid Vaibhav Suryavanshi who scored 101 runs in 38 balls (*11 sixes and 7 four) and hunted down the target of 210 for fun. This defeat has put a speed break to their winning streak and humbled them after a dominating first half of the season. Let’s look at the key reasons for GT‘s defeat over RR.
Poor bowling strategies
GT bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Ishant Sharma opened the bowling and were searching for some swing initially. But when they couldn’t find any movement initially, they didn’t have a backup plan. They still stick to their hard length deliveries, which became easy for Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal to pick.
They also didn’t try to attack the stumps, which had already negotiated two wicket-taking options, bowled and LBW. They were waiting for the batter to make a mistake and edge the ball. which is considered a defensive move. They also didn’t attack Vaibhav by bowling short balls and yorkers.
Vaibhav had a little bit of struggle against short balls in his first 2 matches. Prasidh Krishna bowled a stump line yorker to him and got his wicket, but it was too late. The damage was already done by him.
They could have opened the innings with Washington Sundar or could have brought him or Sai Kishore earlier in the powerplay. Both the left-handed openers love pace on the ball. Slow bowlers earlier in the innings could have affected their bat speed and momentum.
We can say they didn’t bring Sai Kishore because of the left-hander match-up, but that doesn’t work in the same way every time. Axar Patel took two left-handers in the same over against RCB. They could have even tried one over of Sharukh Khan in the middle, who is a part-time off-spin bowler, and can flight the ball in the air.
Catches win Matches
Jos Buttler dropped Jaiswal on 2 runs in the second over. If that catch had been taken, maybe it could have affected the momentum of RR innings and made them to think about building a partnership, which would have put them in a defensive mode for some time.
This old cricket phrase has been proven right again and again. ” Catches win Matches”.
Also Read: RR vs GT : Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s Merciless Ton & RR’s Win Over GT Breaks Records