Rajasthan Royals seemed to be a happy unit going into the 20th over against Lucknow Super Giants. Until then, stand-in captain Riyan Parag shuffled his bowlers well, and unlike the previous outings, it was a disciplined show by the Royals bowling group, led by Jofra Archer.
But things went haywire for the Royals as Abdul Samad turned the match around for LSG with four sixes off Sandeep Sharma to help his side add 27 off the last six balls. In the end, that cost the Royals dear as they suffered a narrow two-run defeat.
As the team’s woes in the death overs continued, spin bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule admitted that, at times, the team has lacked effective bowling partnerships.
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“If it is batting or bowling, you need partnerships. We may be lacking at times with the bowling partnerships. Death overs are so hard for all the bowlers in this format. Not only ours but other bowlers have also been trying to execute to the best of their ability. But it is a tough time for any bowler to bowl,” Bahutule said on Saturday.
“Every game, we try to see how a bowler can go there and express himself and give his best. That’s what the process has been. We have been focusing on the process. The results are not in our control, but we have a few games left. So, you never know, we can just get on a winning streak and cover up these couple of games,” Bahutule, a former India international, added.
Chasing 181, the Royals were in a comfortable position, with nine runs needed from the final over. But with Avesh Khan bowling a tidy over and banking on his yorkers, the home team fell two runs short of the target.
“We have been playing good cricket, just that the result has not gone our way. In the dugout, there is a lot of calmness with Rahul (Dravid) being there. I think everybody has played enough cricket in that dugout to know that one should not panic and take it as it comes. But unfortunately, losing by two runs in this game and the previous game with a super over (against Delhi Capitals) has been hard,” Bahutule said.
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“But that’s the way the game goes. T20 is a format where a lot of risk is involved. You make a lot of mistakes, and our effort is to minimise those mistakes. When we had a partnership going, we could have finished it a couple of overs (before) itself…”, he added.
With just two wins from eight matches (four points), the Royals are placed eighth in the standings and will take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday.
