After stumbling to a 37-run loss against Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals' pacer Tom Curran said that the message was sent out to the batsmen by the management to be aware of the net run-rate as it can play a part in the tournament going ahead.
While chasing 175, Rajasthan was restricted to 137/9 in the allotted twenty overs. In the end, Tom Curran played an unbeaten innings of 54 runs from just 36 balls to take Royals' score past the 130-run mark. Apart from Curran, only Jos Buttler (21) and Rahul Tewatia (14) managed to register scores in double figures.
At one stage, Rajasthan was reduced to 88/8 as KKR bowlers wreaked havoc at the Dubai International Stadium. For KKR, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, and Varun Chakravarthy scalped two wickets each.
"We kept on losing wickets and obviously, in a run-chase, if you keep on losing wickets, it always makes it hard. We just lost too many wickets. It got to a stage where the message came out that the net run rate might come into play at the back end of the tournament. It was about to taking it deep and targetting the shorter boundary to get us as close we can," Curran said in a video posted by the official Twitter handle of Royals.
"I am feeling good with the bat, the match against KKR gave a chance to get some runs, but this is all in a losing cause and it doesn't feel that great. I have been striking them well and hopefully, I can contribute to winning performances moving forward," he added.
Mavi got the wickets of Sanju Samson and Jos Buttler while Nagarkoti dismissed Robin Uthappa and Riyan Parag. Pat Cummins bowled three overs and conceded just 13 runs. The pacer also bagged the crucial wicket of Royals skipper Steve Smith.
While batting first, Shubman Gill top-scored for KKR with 47 runs. Eoin Morgan and Andre Russell also played useful knocks of 34 and 24 respectively to take the score to 174/6.
Morgan usually bats at number four or five, but he was sent out to the middle at number six against Rajasthan Royals.
Rajasthan Royals will next take on Royal Challengers Bangalore on October 3 while KKR will lock horns with Delhi Capitals on the same day.
( With inputs from ANI )
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