After stumbling to a 46-run defeat against Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals skipper Steve Smith said that the Sharjah wicket slowed down considerably in the second half, and admitted that the side ended up conceding 15-20 more runs than they wanted to.
Rajasthan Royals failed to chase down the target of 185 runs and the Steve Smith-led side was bowled out for 138, giving Delhi Capitals a win by 46 runs.
No Royals' batsmen were able to stay at the crease for a long period of time and only Rahul Tewatia (38) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (34) were able to register respectable scores. For Delhi Capitals, Kagiso Rabada once again got among the wickets as he scalped three wickets.
"I think the wicket did slow down a bit, probably it was not that good as it was in our first two games, but having said that, we probably let them off the hook in the first innings, we probably let them get 10-15 too many. During the chase, we lost wickets again, I got out, we just kept on losing wickets at regular intervals, and chasing 180 odd on a wicket that has slowed up is not easy. We always knew 180 would be a tough chase, we needed to string together partnerships but we were not able to do that," said Smith while replying to an query during the post-match press conference.
While batting first, Delhi Capitals registered 184/8 in the allotted twenty overs. For the Shreyas Iyer-led side, Shimron Hetmyer and Marcus Stoinis got among the runs as both batsmen played knocks of 45 and 39 respectively.
Rajasthan Royals put forward a good fielding effort and the side was able to string together a couple of run-outs as well. Yashasvi Jaiswal ran-out Shreyas Iyer while Rishabh Pant was also sent back to the pavilion via a run-out.
Commenting on the fielding effort of the side, Smith said: "Fielding has been disappointing so far throughout this tournament, so it was pleasing to see a couple of good catches and pull off two run-outs, it was nice to see that it has stepped up a little bit."
In the match against Delhi, Rahul Tewatia played a knock of 38 runs and he also returned with the figures of 1-20 from his four overs.
Talking about Tewatia, Smith said: "Rahul Tewatia bowled really well, he summed up the conditions nicely, he was able to read the batsmen, he did a terrific job with the ball, he hit a few in the middle with the bat in hand, he is a valuable player for us."
Rajasthan is currently at the seventh place in the IPL 2020 standings with just four points from six games. The side has faced four consecutive defeats and the Smith-led team will next take on SunRisers Hyderabad on Sunday.
"There are plenty of areas that we need to work on, our batting has not been good enough, our top-three have not scored big runs in the last three games and that has been disappointing, there is some execution stuff with the ball as well, it is not an easy game, after all, we are doing something wrong and that is hurting us," Smith signed off.
( With inputs from ANI )
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