Yet another defeat at IPL 2020 has left the Rajasthan Royals cornered. Steve Smith’s team is second from the bottom on the points table with just three wins in eight games and his hopes of making the playoffs are hanging by a thread. There was no magic from Rahul Tewatia on Wednesday night in Dubai as the Delhi Capitals closed the lid on the Royals and scored a 13-run win.
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For Smith, there were many things to regret, the biggest being the inability of his hitters to form a partnership. Responding to DC’s 161, RR starters Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes made 37 runs to the opening gate on the England off-roader with 41 points. but none could capitalize and stay long.
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“The opening partnership carried us forward in the game, but we couldn’t extend those partnerships. The guys kept going in and out, never reaching 50 or 60. It’s been the trend in the tournament, “Smith said after the game.
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“The wicket slowed down a bit as the game progressed. We got off to a good start with Jos and Stokes, then we lost a couple of terrains and got another partnership between Stokes and Sanju, then we lost the terrains again in groups and on the slow terrains it’s hard to make up too many runs on the backend. We needed to dig a little deeper with some of our hitters and we couldn’t do that. We thought we played well on the backend and restricted them to 160-odd, that was probably on par in this wicket. “
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It was a night that fast bowlers will not forget. RR’s spearhead Jofra Archer chipped in superb 3/19 of his four overs, while for the Capitals Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada and Tushar Deshpande kept things tight. “The guys who have airspeed have been more successful, Jofra has been great for us and the same with Nortje and Rabada for Delhi,” said Smith.
“They changed things tonight by bowling to a rhythm, slowing down and varying well, we couldn’t deal with that. We are not in the best position at the moment so we need to get out of this and hopefully come back with a great game in three days. “
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