IPL 2018: Five Biggest mistakes teams committed this week

3. RR dropping Shane Watson twice

As the age-old saying goes, “Catches win matches”. The lesser-known saying goes something like this: “Drop catches and you’ll definitely not win the match”. Rajasthan Royals (RR) had to face the music when they dropped a world-class batsman like Shane Watson twice in consecutive overs in the beginning of the Chennai Super Kings‘s (CSK) innings. The culprit, in both cases, was Rahul Tripathi as he dropped Watson at an individual score of 8 runs and 18 runs in the first and second overs respectively.

Watson went on to play a blinder of an innings as he scored his 3rd IPL century. He made a mockery of the entire RR bowling outfit as he registered 106 runs in 57 deliveries. The fielding effort from Rajasthan, in general, was below par as Sanju Samson also dropped Bravo in the 18th over. These slip-ups enabled CSK to pile 204 runs on the scoreboard. Watson’s partnership with Raina was instrumental in building the Chennai innings.

In reply, RR lost wickets in quick succession from the very beginning as Heinrich Klaasen, Samson, and the skipper, Ajinkya Rahane were dismissed cheaply. Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes tried to stitch a partnership together, but it was rendered useless by the subsequent landslide of wickets. Rajasthan could’ve had a fighting chance in the game, had they not made the major blunder of dropping one catch too many. CSK ended their first game of the season in Pune on the winning side by 64 runs.