IPL 2021 – MI beat RR: Kumar Sangakkara’s blunt assessment after loss: Rajasthan Royals (RR) head coach Kumar Sangakkara believes that his team’s loss to the Mumbai Indians was more down to their inability to execute plans than the conditions on offer. RR could manage only a paltry 90/9 in their 20 overs, before Mumbai came all guns blazing to chase down the score with more than 10 overs to spare. The defeat has almost ended Rajasthan’s hopes of making it to the playoffs, heading into the final game of the season.
IPL 2021 – MI beat RR: Kumar Sangakkara gives blunt assessment on embarrassing defeat, says “The fault lies more with us than the pitch or the toss”
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Rajasthan Royals head coach Kumar Sangakkara revealed that the team failed to execute their plans on a difficult Sharjah wicket against the Mumbai Indians. While Sangakkara said that the toss could have had an effect, the abject performance was more of the team’s fault than the conditions. He said, “We haven’t played here at Sharjah before, and watching the other games, it seems to be slightly better in the night. And today there was probably a little bit more pace. But once we had only 90 on the board, it was really tough unless you had this amazing powerplay with wickets and very few runs.”
This is the first time ever in IPL where a team batted all their 20 overs to set a target that got chased within 10 overs.#IPL2021 #MIvRR
— Kausthub Gudipati (@kaustats) October 5, 2021
IPL 2021 – MI beat RR: Kumar Sangakkara gives blunt assessment after embarrassing defeat, says “The fault lies more with us than the pitch or the toss”
The 2008 IPL champions struggled to muster runs after the end of the powerplay, while their opponents, Mumbai Indians, steamrolled to victory, raining questions whether the pitch got better to bat on later in the day, making toss a crucial factor.
Sangakkara added, “The crucial part for us was we were 42 [41] for 1 after the powerplay, and the plan was then to extend it beyond the 13th-14th over with at least seven wickets in hand. So that we could really target a bowler or two and build that platform in the 15th over. Unfortunately, we didn’t adapt, Mumbai bowled very well, and we lost too many wickets and we could never attack at any stage. So probably the fault lies more with us than the pitch or the toss.”
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) October 5, 2021
IPL 2021 – MI beat RR: Kumar Sangakkara gives blunt assessment on embarrassing defeat, says “The fault lies more with us than the pitch or the toss”
The conditions in the UAE have created great debate over the past few days, with low scoring games becoming the norm. Concerns have been raised over the slow, sluggish wickets during the tournament, especially with the T20 World Cup set to follow. When quizzed whether the wickets were ideal for T20 cricket, Kumar Sangakkara said that it is an experience and sometimes tracks like the one at Sharjah isn’t a bad idea.
He said, “These types of pitches are challenging and it’s about adapting your game and being smart on it. We’ve spoken about the Sharjah wickets in the lead-up to this game, what the bowlers have to do, what the batters have to do. That the first six overs will be easy and then it’s the case of building a platform… getting to about 15 overs with wickets in hand so we can capitalise at the back-end. For the bowlers it’s about hitting that back of a length, hitting your cross-seams, fast cutters into the pitch.
IPL 2021 – MI beat RR: Kumar Sangakkara added, “But you know on pitches like this, it tests not just your skill but also your flexibility and your mindset. So at times playing on pitches like this is not a bad idea. It’s not the greatest T20 pitch in terms of runs, but it is a challenging pitch in terms of coming to terms with it and then playing on it. It’s an experience, so we’ll have to wait and see how they’ll turn up for the [T20] World Cup [which follows the IPL in the UAE and Oman].”
