IPL 2020: 3 Mistakes committed by the losing team in RCB vs RR game

Rajasthan Royals faced their second defeat in a row after moving out of Sharjah. The team met a top-order collapse early in the innings before Mahipal Lomror and Rahul Tewatia played important knocks to take their team to a respectable total of 154. As Royals are quite dependent on their top three batsmen, this failure from them in RCB vs RR encounter is really going to hurt.

RCB chased the score of 155 rather comfortably as their skipper Virat Kohli and opener Devdutt Padikkal slammed match-winning fifties. Kohli’s form has been a trouble for RCB in this season and this is welcome news for the Bangalore franchise. With two consecutive defeats, the trouble for RR has continued and there are several questions they need to answer before their next clash.

Here are the three mistakes committed by RR in their defeat in match 15, RCB vs RR:-

1. Sticking with the same opening combination

Rajasthan Royals was missing the services of Jos Buttler in the first game and Steve Smith came in as a makeshift opener. However, even when Buttler came back, instead of coming down, Smith is still playing as an opener to give more balls to their best batsmen. This tactic worked in Sharjah but as they moved to a less batting-friendly pitch, Smith lost his touch and the skipper has struggled in the last two games. If RR needs to come back to the winning track, Smith’s demotion could be one of the considerations.

2. The Sharjah mode

RR played their first two games at Sharjah which was a batting paradise. With smaller boundaries and flat pitch, RR scored two 200+ totals and started their campaign with two triumphs. However, they are still playing in the same fashion and they started attacking the RCB bowling attack from ball one. Also, RR are struggling on the field as the dimensions of the ground have changed as well. They have already lost two games in a row and its high time for them to get out of the Sharjah mode.

3. Losing early wickets with such thin batting order

If we look at RR’s batting order, after the top 3 batsmen- Smith, Buttler and Sanju Samson, the batting order looks quite fragile. Robin Uthappa is not in form and rest of them haven’t shown any promise of playing long innings, if keep the cameos aside. Knowing this, the top three batsmen should have played with more responsibility and they should have played the balls on merit. With such thin batting order, long innings from any of the top-order batsman could have done wonders as they almost lost the game in the first 6 overs of the first innings.