IPL 2021 | Batting smartly in the powerplay need of the hour for Rajasthan, claims Kumar Sangakkara

The top three batsmen inexplicably throwing their wickets away inside the first six overs contributed to Rajasthan Royals finishing bottom of the table in IPL 2020, and the ghosts of last season are still continuing to haunt the side. After losing two wickets in the powerplay in each of their first three games, RR were reduced to 32/3 - which soon became 43/4 - on a belter of a Wankhede wicket and though the lower-order managed to post a decent total, the Royals were blown out of the park by a rampant RCB batting unit. Both Manan Vohra and Sanju Samson fell cheaply and softly for the third game running and Jos Buttler, like last season, failed to contribute in back-to-back games to leave the side in a spot of extreme bother. 

"To bat smartly in that powerplay is quite important, to keep those partnerships going and one or two of the top four really making those big scores but today we didn't manage that. But I thought the lower order really fought well in the late middle order and that was quite impressive to see.

"I thought Shivam batted really well and showed a lot more intensity and awareness than in the other three games. You know, one of the things that he matches up well against is spin, and that's his real strength. And today he showed that he had that ability to really try and dominate the slow bowlers. He batted smartly I thought. Unfortunately, got out a little bit ahead of time. But by that time we were in quite a predicament after that powerplay."

But it was not just the batsmen who were culpable as despite having 178 runs on the board to defend, the Rajasthan bowlers looked defeated right from ball one. No bowler barring Chetan Sakariya managed to maintain an ER below 9.50 and some wayward bowling, coupled with exceptional batting, saw RCB knock down the target without losing a single wicket. Sangakkara said that his side have ‘a lot of thinking to do’ and insisted that the bowlers need to read the game better.

"But at the same time execution is really, really important, especially on wickets that are quite flat and it has to be a joint effort between the batsman and bowler and also the fielding. So we've got to get things right. We gotta get better really quickly. It's only been four games, but you know, games can go by quite quickly so we've got a lot of thinking to do. First recover quickly and then get back to play some good cricket that we know we can."

Rajasthan will take on a struggling Kolkata Knight Riders on Saturday, and the fixture will be the Samson-led side’s last game at the Wankhede this season.