IPL 2019 | Have to treat every match as final, says Ben Stokes

Rajasthan Royals started their Indian Premier League campaign with a hat-trick of losses, before managing to win a match against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Their much-famed batting line-up, consisting the likes of Jos Butler, Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, and Steve Smith have failed to fire as a unit. Even K Gowtham and Jaydev Unadkat have failed to set the stage on fire and barring Shreyas Gopal and Jofra Archer, the bowling has looked out of sorts. Thereby, the Royals have only notched up two wins so far and have consistently lost matches at their home ground of Jaipur which was once their fortress. Ben Stokes believes this enables RR to play a fearless approach and hoped the team will put all their negative thoughts behind in the upcoming games.

“Yes, we are in a must-win situation and we have to treat every match as final and which, I guess, puts any sort of negative thought process above our head. We have only one way to go and that is aggressive and positive,” said Stokes, reported PTI.

In RR’s previous encounter against Kings XI Punjab, they were cruising along on their path to the target of 183 but lost their way in the end, to eventually end up 13 runs short of the target. The English all-rounder vowed to forget the previous setbacks and hoped that the side makes it to the finals.

“We know what we have to do. We will try and stay positive. Our performance in last game was disappointing but we are really a good team. We are living in the moment, not looking into the last games, winning or losing. We have to win every game if we want to be in the final,” expressed the 27-year-old.

The inaugural IPL champions have particularly been let down with respect to their death bowling. While Jofra Archer has been good after the first few encounters, Unadkat and Stokes have leaked runs at an economy in excess of 11. Even Dhawal Kulkarni’s economy has been over nine which has not bode well for the Rahane led side. Stokes acknowledged the fact that death bowling has been the side’s Achilles heel while admiring ace death bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga.

“It is the most difficult part of the game. You need different skills as a bowler and keep working in training. That is why bowlers like Bumrah and Malinga are best bowlers in the world. Unfortunately, we have not been able to get our death bowling quite right,” the English all-rounder signed off.

RR will take on the in-form Mumbai Indians at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium today.