From the iSport Cricket Paddock: The Rajasthan Royals have disappointed several fans in this IPL season. With graphs suddenly scaling and then dropping, iSporter Akshay Iyer pens his piece on the end of RR era in IPL - 3.
For the second consecutive season, Rajasthan Royals have failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the Indian Premier League. While the Royals did bounce back after a disastrous start to IPL-3 losing their first three matches, inconsistency and inexperience cost Shane Warne and his team when it really mattered.
Going into the away match against Kolkata Knight Riders yesterday night, the Royals knew that only a win would keep them alive in the tournament. Warne’s decision to bat first on a slowish Eden Gardens track was justified as a score of around 160-170 would have put pressure on KKR. The Royals dropped Michael Lumb, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Amit Paunikar for Aaron Finch, Paras Dogra and Faiz Fazal. While the decision to include Finch and Fazal in the XI was spot-on, Warne may have missed a trick by playing Adam Voges ahead of Lumb or even Shaun Tait. Lumb would have considered himself unlucky to have been benched for this crunch game after a reasonable showing with the bat in previous matches.
Warne, however, did the right thing by promoting Shane Watson to the top of the order. Watson has been used to that role for Australia in the last couple of seasons, and against KKR, got the Royals off to a fast start hitting a series of boundaries. While Watson was blazing away, Naman Ojha wasn’t comfortable at the other end, but he did manage to rotate the strike to ensure the Australian all-rounder would keep the scoreboard ticking over. Watson scored 44 in 26 balls before he was done in by a slower short delivery from LR Shukla to be clean bowled in the eighth over with the Royals score at 59. It was all downhill for the Royals from this moment on as the KKR seamers cut down on pace and used their variations well to take advantage of the slow track.
The Knight Riders’ ground fielding may have left a lot to be desired, but their catching was brilliant as showcased by Shukla and captain Sourav Ganguly, who took blinders to send Ojha and Yusuf Pathan respectively back to the dug-out. Yusuf finished IPL-3 with an aggregate of 333 runs in 14 innings at an average of 27.75 and strike rate of 165.67. However, 173 of those runs were scored in two innings, including a 37-ball 100 against Mumbai Indians. But, since bowlers started taking advantage of Yusuf’s weakness against short-pitched bowling, he found life with the bat difficult to handle.
Following Watson’s dismissal, the Royals managed to score only 73 runs in 12.3 overs losing eight wickets, and their struggles can be gauged by the fact that in the last six overs of their innings, the champions of the inaugural IPL edition scored only 31 runs. While the KKR bowlers cut down on their pace to make hits to the boundary difficult, the Royals’ batsmen could have still pierced the gaps in the field to run ones and twos. This could have not only kept the scoreboard ticking over, but would have also reduced the number of dot balls faced by the Royals’ middle-order. The Royals managed to put 132 runs on the board, but it was always going to be a sub-par score even on the slow Eden track.
Kamran Khan gave the Royals some hope when he dismissed Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle in the third over of the KKR innings, but Ganguly and Cheteshwar Pujara put on an unbeaten partnership of 111 runs for the third wicket to take their team over the line. Warne used eight bowlers, but none of them made an impression on Ganguly and Pujara.
While the KKR bowlers changed their tactics to adapt to the sluggish nature of the track, the Royals’ bowling attack, except Watson, wasn’t quite up to the task. Ganguly and Pujara also played a number of dot balls, but they also rotated the strike and picked up the tempo after the eighth over of the run-chase. The fact they were chasing a target of only 133 would have also helped Ganguly and Pujara minimise the risks taken and they were helped by some ineffective bowling by the Royals.
After the match, Warne said the inexperience of some players was a crucial factor in the Royals’ early exit from the tournament. The forced exits of Graeme Smith and Dimitri Mascarenhas early in IPL-3 didn’t help the Royals either, but the owners and management will now have to take a hard look at the composition of the team leading to the next round of auctions. While it is commendable that the Royals have encouraged young Indian talent, the hard fact remains the lack of genuine match-winners with the bat and ball has also played a role in the team’s inconsistent performances. The time has certainly come for the owners of the Royals to loosen their purse strings and build a stronger squad if the Royals are to put in an improved showing in IPL-4.
Going into the away match against Kolkata Knight Riders yesterday night, the Royals knew that only a win would keep them alive in the tournament. Warne’s decision to bat first on a slowish Eden Gardens track was justified as a score of around 160-170 would have put pressure on KKR. The Royals dropped Michael Lumb, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Amit Paunikar for Aaron Finch, Paras Dogra and Faiz Fazal. While the decision to include Finch and Fazal in the XI was spot-on, Warne may have missed a trick by playing Adam Voges ahead of Lumb or even Shaun Tait. Lumb would have considered himself unlucky to have been benched for this crunch game after a reasonable showing with the bat in previous matches.
Warne, however, did the right thing by promoting Shane Watson to the top of the order. Watson has been used to that role for Australia in the last couple of seasons, and against KKR, got the Royals off to a fast start hitting a series of boundaries. While Watson was blazing away, Naman Ojha wasn’t comfortable at the other end, but he did manage to rotate the strike to ensure the Australian all-rounder would keep the scoreboard ticking over. Watson scored 44 in 26 balls before he was done in by a slower short delivery from LR Shukla to be clean bowled in the eighth over with the Royals score at 59. It was all downhill for the Royals from this moment on as the KKR seamers cut down on pace and used their variations well to take advantage of the slow track.
The Knight Riders’ ground fielding may have left a lot to be desired, but their catching was brilliant as showcased by Shukla and captain Sourav Ganguly, who took blinders to send Ojha and Yusuf Pathan respectively back to the dug-out. Yusuf finished IPL-3 with an aggregate of 333 runs in 14 innings at an average of 27.75 and strike rate of 165.67. However, 173 of those runs were scored in two innings, including a 37-ball 100 against Mumbai Indians. But, since bowlers started taking advantage of Yusuf’s weakness against short-pitched bowling, he found life with the bat difficult to handle.
Following Watson’s dismissal, the Royals managed to score only 73 runs in 12.3 overs losing eight wickets, and their struggles can be gauged by the fact that in the last six overs of their innings, the champions of the inaugural IPL edition scored only 31 runs. While the KKR bowlers cut down on their pace to make hits to the boundary difficult, the Royals’ batsmen could have still pierced the gaps in the field to run ones and twos. This could have not only kept the scoreboard ticking over, but would have also reduced the number of dot balls faced by the Royals’ middle-order. The Royals managed to put 132 runs on the board, but it was always going to be a sub-par score even on the slow Eden track.
Kamran Khan gave the Royals some hope when he dismissed Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle in the third over of the KKR innings, but Ganguly and Cheteshwar Pujara put on an unbeaten partnership of 111 runs for the third wicket to take their team over the line. Warne used eight bowlers, but none of them made an impression on Ganguly and Pujara.
While the KKR bowlers changed their tactics to adapt to the sluggish nature of the track, the Royals’ bowling attack, except Watson, wasn’t quite up to the task. Ganguly and Pujara also played a number of dot balls, but they also rotated the strike and picked up the tempo after the eighth over of the run-chase. The fact they were chasing a target of only 133 would have also helped Ganguly and Pujara minimise the risks taken and they were helped by some ineffective bowling by the Royals.
After the match, Warne said the inexperience of some players was a crucial factor in the Royals’ early exit from the tournament. The forced exits of Graeme Smith and Dimitri Mascarenhas early in IPL-3 didn’t help the Royals either, but the owners and management will now have to take a hard look at the composition of the team leading to the next round of auctions. While it is commendable that the Royals have encouraged young Indian talent, the hard fact remains the lack of genuine match-winners with the bat and ball has also played a role in the team’s inconsistent performances. The time has certainly come for the owners of the Royals to loosen their purse strings and build a stronger squad if the Royals are to put in an improved showing in IPL-4.
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