Rajasthan Royals were flying high on the back of the scintillating form of their opening pair of teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal early in the season. However, that train seems to have sputtered a bit in the last few matches and on Saturday, RR were handed a sound thrashing by the Gujarat Titans.
Chasing a target of 230, RR ended up being all out for just 152 runs and lost the match by 77 runs. Jaiswal, who captained the side for the first time in his career, fell cheaply while Sooryavanshi smashed his way to 36 off 16 before falling to Mohammed Siraj in the fourth over. Gujarat Titans batting coach Matthew Hayden felt that in chases as steep as this, it is as important for someone from the top order to stay as long as possible as it is for them to score quickly.
“Well, tonight was a good example, right, of an exciting young talent in Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. He batted, got 30 runs at a strike rate of 300,” Hayden, the former Australia batting great who was among the early pioneers in the IPL, told reporters after the match.
“But when you’re chasing 220 odd, you need to bat longer and deeper. So the advantage that we have is that we get players, like the top three that you mentioned, who are striking at 150.”
GT’s score was built on the fact that RR’s pacers seem to have lost the plot in the powerplay and gave a trove of extras, coupled with a classy 118-run opening stand between captain Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan that came in just 65 balls. Sudharsan scored 55 in 36 balls while Gill cruised his way to 84 in 44 balls.
“As a batter, that is really hard, and they’re doing it for a long period of time, they’re constantly getting into the back half of the game, not just batting inside the powerplay. They’re going right through with their fitness and their ability to be able to really play Test match-type cricket, and ODI cricket in particular,” said Hayden.
