IPL 2018: Slip catching issues mounting for Rajasthan Royals

The Rajasthan Royals have had a topsy-turvy of a start to their Indian Premier League 2018 campaign. While they have a couple of good wins under their belt, the team has lost few games from winning positions. Initially, the team was struggling to determine their best XI but with the inclusion of Jofra Archer, the side looks more balanced and competitive.

Fielding is one of the key aspects of a T20 game. The 5-10 runs that the fielders save usually makes all the difference in the end result. The old saying “catches win you matches” is even more apt for the shorter formats of the game. The Rajasthan Royals did not have a great outing on the field against the Chennai Super Kings and the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Kane Williamson, the Sunrisers’ skipper was dropped on 11 by Rahul Tripathi at the slips. The Kiwi batsmen went on to score 63 that took his side to a respectable total.

Royals made to pay heavily

“It needs to be addressed and something we have to really look into. We have always said we want to field aggressively. That’s an area we can really improve because this is the third catch that has been dropped in the slip cordon,” Amol Muzumdar, Rajasthan Royals batting coach said in the post-match press conference. The Royals lost the match to SRH by 11 runs after restricting the orange army to 151/7.

Rahul Tripathi had earlier dropped Shane Watson at slips in their match against the Chennai Super Kings and Watson made them pay heavily by scoring a century. Thus, fielding remains an important aspect of the game and batting and bowling alone cannot take a side to winning positions. With the presence of good fielders, bowlers too get motivated to put more than 100% on the pitch.

Sanju Samson and Ajinkya Rahane had put the side in a great position to get over the line. The latter went on to score his first fifty of the season and remained unbeaten but still failed to take his side home. “The game was within our reach all the time barring the last two, three overs. So we always felt that we’ll have that one big over. That didn’t come until the last over,” Muzumdar added. With this loss, RR is fifth in the points table with six points from seven games.

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