‘You can't sit and wait in T20 cricket’ - Kumar Sangakkara lambasts Rajasthan Royals after humiliating defeat against Gujarat Titans

Against Gujarat Titans on May 5 in the IPL 2023, Rajasthan Royals suffered an embarrassing nine-wicket defeat and that didn’t go well with Director of Cricket and head coach Kumar Sangakkara. The former Sri Lanka international slammed his side after the match and stated that the batters showed no intent against Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad as the home team was all-out for only 118 runs at Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

The 45-year-old also criticized the batters for taking too much time to settle down against GT. Notably, Sanju Samson with 30 runs off 20 deliveries was the side's leading run-scorer as seven of the batters failed to score in double digits. On the other hand, spin wizard Rashid Khan picked up three wickets for the Hardik Pandya-led side while Noor Ahmad picked up two.

“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 was quoted as saying by India Today in the post-match press conference. 

We were very, very poor in terms of capitalizing on the starts: Sangakkara

The former stumper-batter went on to add that his team failed to capitalize on the starts they got from time to time and also pointed out that the batters were a bit reckless in the middle as GT bowlers took good advantage of that. 

“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,” Sangakkara added.

Meanwhile, with the win, GT solidified their place at the top of the IPL Points Table while RR are currently at number four.