IPL 2018 | Ben Cutting blames Mumbai Indians' inconsistent batting for defeat against Rajasthan Royals
Ben Cutting has slammed Mumbai Indians' middle-order for not being able to forge partnerships as their main reason for their loss against Rajasthan Royals which has put them on the brink of elimination. Cutting, however, heaped praise on Jos Buttler who notched up his fifth consecutive half-century.
Last night’s match between Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians carried a lot of significance as far as the playoff race was concerned with both teams hanging mid-table with 10 points each. While both teams had a straightforward equation of winning all of their three games to enter the playoffs, Mumbai suffered a familiar middle-order collapse which has left the chances of defending their title hanging by a thread.
Although Mumbai's top-order gave them an early spark, the team management would have hoped the middle-order, who absolutely hammered Kolkata Knight Riders a couple of days back, to come to the party again. However, the RR pacers, led by Jofra Archer, didn’t allow them that opportunity in the final 10 overs and restricted them to a score of 168 runs in 20 overs, which the visitors chased it down with ease.
“I’m not going to put it down to their bowling. It’s probably back to our batting. A few times this time we’ve fallen in a heap and sort of lost quick three or four wickets in three overs for not many runs. So when you lose 2 for 20, 3 for 30, it’s tough to build up and fire again regardless of the bowling. If you go back to our first 3-4 games of the season that we lost in the last over, had we won two of those four games we wouldn’t be having the same conversation. We’d be sitting comfortably on 14-16 points,” Cutting was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
For the Royals, Jos Buttler, once again, led from the front with
When asked how does one plan against a player with the attacking mindset as that of Buttler, Cutting stated, “It’s tough. We were pretty close to our plans tonight. (He) missed a few balls with execution here and there but that happens in Twenty20 cricket. He’s in red-hot form and he’s scored over 500 runs. But his confidence is high; he’s striking the ball well.”
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