The Gist
In his 150th VIVO IPL appearance, skipper Gautam Gambhir won the toss and opted to field first. Our bowlers did a good job, but unfortunately the rain hurt our chances. A revised target of 71 from 6 overs was set for us to chase after restricting the Royals to 153/5 in almost 18 overs.
“(I) thought if we could contain them to 170, we had a good chance. We had to go from ball 1. There are hardly any balls, difficult for our batsmen,” said Gautam Gambhir after the game. The frustration was justified. A target of 170 odd in 20 overs sounds more achievable than 71 off 36 balls.
The Samson and Rahane Show
We got off to a great start with the run-out of D’ Arcy Short. He must be cursing his stars. Two IPL games, two direct hits, two run-outs.
In a surprising move, Ben Stokes was promoted to number 3. The ploy didn’t work as well as RR would have liked. Trent Boult got Big Ben with a peach to give DD the all-important breakthrough. Despite that, the Royals finished a brisk powerplay at 51/2. Rahane and Samson consolidated well after the powerplay as well, without letting the run-rate slip.
Sanju Samson looked extremely threatening during his 37, before playing a Nadeem delivery onto his stumps. Nadeem further added to his tally of wickets after deceiving Rahane thoroughly to induce a looping outside edge. He finished a commendable spell with figures of 2/34.
Jos Buttler and Rahul Tripathi teed off and scored 18 off the 17th over. Buttler landed some lusty blows to raise some alarms before Shami disturbed his woodwork with a yorker on the money.
Rain Plays Spoilsport
At 17.5 overs with the Royals at 153/5, rain played spoilsport. The rain teased, and in the end relented to leave enough time for a 6-over chase with a revised target of 71.
We got off to the worst start possible, as a horrible mix up led to Colin Munro being run-out without facing a ball. Rishabh Pant walked in at number 3 and needed no sighters. He smashed two of his first three balls to the fence.
Nevertheless, the target started getting out of reach as Maxwell struggled to connect in his first game for this season. Ben Laughlin’s experience came into good use for Rajasthan. He used his repertoire of variations and dried up our boundaries. Pant and Chris Morris did deposit a few in the stands, but it was yet another case of too little too late.
As 35 off 12 became 25 off 8, which became 24 off 4, the fans’ hopes started fading away. In this rain-curtailed game, it just wasn’t to be for us. The target was stiff, and it was difficult to attack right from the word go.
But, the boys shouldn’t take the loss from this rain-affected game too hard on themselves. It was unfortunate. The rest of the tournament won’t be.
Brief Scores: RR 153/5 in 17.5 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 45 off 40, Sanju Samson 37 off 22, Shahbaz Nadeem 2/34); DD 60/4 (Rishabh Pant 20 off 14, Ben Laughlin 2/20)
The Gist
In his 150th VIVO IPL appearance, skipper Gautam Gambhir won the toss and opted to field first. Our bowlers did a good job, but unfortunately the rain hurt our chances. A revised target of 71 from 6 overs was set for us to chase after restricting the Royals to 153/5 in almost 18 overs.
“(I) thought if we could contain them to 170, we had a good chance. We had to go from ball 1. There are hardly any balls, difficult for our batsmen,” said Gautam Gambhir after the game. The frustration was justified. A target of 170 odd in 20 overs sounds more achievable than 71 off 36 balls.
The Samson and Rahane Show
We got off to a great start with the run-out of D’ Arcy Short. He must be cursing his stars. Two IPL games, two direct hits, two run-outs.
In a surprising move, Ben Stokes was promoted to number 3. The ploy didn’t work as well as RR would have liked. Trent Boult got Big Ben with a peach to give DD the all-important breakthrough. Despite that, the Royals finished a brisk powerplay at 51/2. Rahane and Samson consolidated well after the powerplay as well, without letting the run-rate slip.
Sanju Samson looked extremely threatening during his 37, before playing a Nadeem delivery onto his stumps. Nadeem further added to his tally of wickets after deceiving Rahane thoroughly to induce a looping outside edge. He finished a commendable spell with figures of 2/34.
Jos Buttler and Rahul Tripathi teed off and scored 18 off the 17th over. Buttler landed some lusty blows to raise some alarms before Shami disturbed his woodwork with a yorker on the money.
Rain Plays Spoilsport
At 17.5 overs with the Royals at 153/5, rain played spoilsport. The rain teased, and in the end relented to leave enough time for a 6-over chase with a revised target of 71.
We got off to the worst start possible, as a horrible mix up led to Colin Munro being run-out without facing a ball. Rishabh Pant walked in at number 3 and needed no sighters. He smashed two of his first three balls to the fence.
Nevertheless, the target started getting out of reach as Maxwell struggled to connect in his first game for this season. Ben Laughlin’s experience came into good use for Rajasthan. He used his repertoire of variations and dried up our boundaries. Pant and Chris Morris did deposit a few in the stands, but it was yet another case of too little too late.
As 35 off 12 became 25 off 8, which became 24 off 4, the fans’ hopes started fading away. In this rain-curtailed game, it just wasn’t to be for us. The target was stiff, and it was difficult to attack right from the word go.
But, the boys shouldn’t take the loss from this rain-affected game too hard on themselves. It was unfortunate. The rest of the tournament won’t be.
Brief Scores: RR 153/5 in 17.5 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 45 off 40, Sanju Samson 37 off 22, Shahbaz Nadeem 2/34); DD 60/4 (Rishabh Pant 20 off 14, Ben Laughlin 2/20)
