IPL 2020: 3 Mistakes committed by the losing side in RR vs DC

Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) return to Sharjah was not as pleasing as expected. They won their first two games at this venue but lost the third one by a big margin. RR vs DC turned out to be a one-sided affair, as RR convincingly defeated DC. This was the first time a team batting first at Sharjah, missed out to score a total above 200 and interestingly, the chasing team fell short of 46 runs as well.

While batting first, DC started with a dreadful show from their top-order as RR gained control with their superb bowling and fielding effort. DC reached a decent total of 184, which looked good but at a ground like Sharjah, even 220 was unsafe.

However, Rajasthan’s poor batting form continued as they lost wickets at regular interval and eventually failed to chase it down. With this defeat, RR have lost four out of their six games and they are still looking for a perfect combination almost halfway down the league stage.

Here are the three mistakes committed by RR against DC:-

1. Read conditions wrongly

Sharjah has been proved a batting paradise in IPL 2020 with teams scoring 200+ totals with ease. However, coming into this match, RR had an out of form batting order. If they would have opted to bat first, their batsmen could have scored freely and they could have put pressure on DC’s batting line up.

Also, as the team batting first scores more than 200 runs, more often than not at Sharjah, chasing a massive total always brings pressure. RR opted to field first, which led to DC scoring 184 and while chasing more than 9 runs per over with an out of form batting, RR failed to get back on the winning track in RR vs DC encounter.

2. Keeping Jofra Archer for the end

Jofra Archer is RR’s strike bowler. When DC were on the back foot with a batting collapse and Hetmyer was trying to drag the momentum towards Delhi, Archer could have been an easy choice to dismiss the last dangerous batsman. However, Steve Smith kept Archer waiting till the end and made him bowl the 18th and the 20th overs. If RR could have grabbed a wicket in the middle overs, DC could have been restricted for a lower total.

3. Again playing a thin batting line up

Rajasthan Royals have failed to score a big total after winning their first two games. Their top order has been out of touch and considering this, they were expected to play a longer batting order. However, they didn’t and with another failure at the top, RR even failed to get closer to DC’s total. With Rahul Tewatia batting at number 6 and Mahipal Lomror at number 5, RR’s batting order looked quite fragile against a top-quality bowling attack of DC.