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Rajasthan Royals coach Kumar Sangakkara has been left unhappy with his side's embarrassing batting performance against defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT). Having won the reverse fixture, the Royals crumbled against the spin of Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad.
Sangakkara's team scored just 118 runs in 17.5 overs and then failed to restrict GT with the ball in the second innings of the game. Powered by Hardik Pandya and Wriddhiman Saha, GT chased down the target in 13.5 overs, handing them a big NRR boost in the tournament.
The Royals coach was annoyed with the loss and said that having no intent against spinners was the main problem for Rajasthan batters. He slammed his team and said that they should not have just sat and waited against the Afghan spin duo.
"You can't sit and wait in T20 cricket and let the bowlers bowl to us. But having said that, both Rashid and Noor bowled exceptionally well and not just that - their pace-bowling quartet came back into the game really well after not having the best of starts. So I think it's all credit to Gujarat, the way they played, and we played a very poor game," Sangakkara said in the post-match press conference.
The former Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batter shared his thoughts on his side's inability to capitalise on the start that was given to the team by their skipper Sanju Samson after the wicket of Jos Buttler in the second over of the game.
"We were very, very poor in terms of capitalising on the starts we got. We were showing intent for a while, but we were a little bit reckless, and then we had very, very little intent against the two spinners. Rashid bowled brilliantly, I thought Noor bowled really well as well, but that's the time the batters need to step up and show more and more intent," the former cricketer said.
Rajasthan batters failed to get away from Rashid on the day, who bowled one of his best spells in the Indian Premier League (IPL). In his fours overs, Rashid picked three wickets with a miserly economy of 3.5. Sangakkara was not happy with his team's intent and let them know about the same.
"Even a defence in T20 cricket has to have the intent of wanting to score. You work down the sequence of 6, 4, 3, 2, 1; or, if you're under pressure, you go 4, 3, 2, 1. But you are always looking for opportunities to score, and at the minimum, getting off strike," the former Sri Lanka keeper said.
"And once that intent is shown, it doesn't matter how good a bowler you are, you are always thinking that you can't give the batter anything loose because you're going to get put away. So that's one area that we've got to really look at," he added.
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