Home
Rajasthan Royals (RR) suffered another defeat at home as they failed to chase down 220 against Punjab Kings (PBKS) despite getting a blazing start from openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi. RR head coach Rahul Dravid sees no point blaming the batters despite another close defeat while chasing. Dravid is unhappy with bowlers being not able to take wickets or contain the scoring rate.
"There's no point just blaming the batsmen. To be honest, this wicket I didn't think it was 220 wicket... It was about 195-200 wicket and we gave 20 runs extra also," Dravid said in the post-match press conference on May 18.
Not just bowling, Dravid feels that the fielding has not been adequate. He said that RR lost five close matches and hopes that they learn and do better next season.
"If we look at the statistics of the entire season, we haven't been able to do well in bowling, neither in taking wickets nor in controlling the runs. We are chasing in nine out of 10 matches, and every time the target is 200-210-220. Even then, our openers are giving us a good start, but we aren't able to finish the run chase. So we have to work on these things next season, on the bowling, even in the fielding, where we are missing catches," Dravid explained.
"Sometimes it looks like you've only won three matches. But if we look at it, we've lost five close matches. So if we are able to get over the line in those 4-5 close matches in a row, sometimes the season looks good, but there's no excuse. You have to win. If you have to do well in this tournament, you can't lose five close matches. You can lose 1-2, but you can't lose five close matches. We were not able to do that in the last phase of the season, but we're hopeful that there are some good talents in the team."
Thanks to Suryavanshi's 15-ball 40 and Jaiswal clearing the boundary with ease, RR were 89/1 after the powerplay overs. This was their highest score in powerplay overs in the franchise's history. However, RR lost the plot and lost wickets to left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar.
Dravid rues lack of finishing abilities
Dravid admits to the lack of finishing abilities but pointed out that they were not far away from winning those matches. Again, he pointed out conceding 15-20 runs above the par score.
"It's been a tough one. We've got close, but we haven't been able to finish the job. It's been one of those kind of seasons where you always feel with the ball that we probably give 15-20 runs extra and then you've got yourself in some really good positions to win the games, but we haven't been able to finish the job and a little bit around that lower, lower-middle order we just haven't been able to click and get the big shots that we need.
"I mean, it's been five games now where the margins have really been one or two hits, which you need in that phase, which we just haven't been able to do. So it's not that we've been losing too many wickets, we're still only five down today, but we just haven't been able to hit those shots," he further added.
RR's final match of the season
This was RR's 10th defeat from 13 games. Their last game of the season is against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on May 20 at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi. CSK are currently at the bottom of the points table.
ADVERTISEMENT
