Rajasthan’s Royal collapse: Rahul Dravid’s team fails to cross the finish line once more after needing 25 runs off of 18 balls.
Nine runs needed from six balls. That was the equation for the Rajasthan Royals in their last two matches. At Kotla, a few days ago, they came undone by Mitch Starc’s fine last over, albeit still managing to force a Super Over and losing in the tiebreaker. In Jaipur on Saturday, they come undone even worse. Chasing 181, RR fell short by 2 runs against Lucknow Super Giants to suffer their sixth defeat of the season and remain rooted to the bottom half of the table.
Avesh shines, RR collapse
When 25 runs were needed off 18 balls, and Yashasvi Jaiswal was still batting at 74, RR were in cruise control. Avesh Khan’s night till then had not gone well; he had conceded 26 runs off his first two overs, but with the first ball of the 18th over, he fired in a full delivery, zoning in on the middle stump. Jaiswal, who had batted like a dream for most of the night, lost his shape, and the middle stump flew off the ground.It was the first sign of another RR late collapse. Later in the over, stand-in captain Riyan Parag went for a scoop behind the wickets – per se, not the worst idea because Avesh was constantly trying to bowl the fuller length balls – but he too lost his shape far too much, fell over to the offside and saw the ball crash into the stumps. He reviewed it, but he already knew the result as he walked off while the review system confirmed the obvious. Shimron Hetmyer has been retained by RR for his abilities at the death overs, and he hit a couple of fours off Prince Yadav in the 19th. Then he fell off the third ball of the last over, flicked a full ball straight to Shardul Thakur at short fine leg, a gift to LSG. Despite a late dropped catch by David Miller, Avesh held his nerve off the last ball to seal the win for LSG… and later quipped he wants to be the best version of Avesh Khan, and not be Mitchell Starc, when asked about the comparison.
For Parag and RR, it was another forgettable night. “Really kind of hard to process all the emotions right now. I don’t know what we did wrong. I felt we were in the game probably till the 18th over and even the 19th over actually. But yeah, I don’t know. It’s tough. I blame myself for this. I probably should have finished it in the 19th over, but then I don’t know if that was a bad decision from myself,” Parag said after the match, the tone of the interview not dissimilar from Sanju Samson’s after the defeat against DC the other night.
