"Some Nervous Bowlers Out There...": Ravi Shastri Lambasts Rajasthan Royals After Loss To Gujarat Titans In Qualifier 1
Ravi Shastri did not mince his words after Rajasthan Royals failed to defend 188/6 against Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2022 Qualifier 1.
Rajasthan Royals were undone in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 Qualifier 1 after they failed to defend a decent total of 188/6 against Gujarat Titans in Kolkata on Tuesday. GT rode on some brilliant batting by Hardik Pandya and David Miller to chase down the target with seven wickets to spare. Except Yuzvendra Chahal, all other Rajasthan bowlers including Prasidh Krishna (econ 11.42 RPO), Ravichandran Ashwin (econ 10.00 RPO), Obed McCoy (econ 10.00 RPO) and Trent Boult (econ 9.50 RPO) were pretty costly. Ravi Shastri, former Indian cricket team coach, criticised Rajasthan's bowling show.
"The pitch settles down in Kolkata under lights. It's very difficult to contain anybody. It's a boundary ground. So, if you have two or three bad overs in the middle and you allow the other side to get the momentum, you could be in big trouble and that's what happened with RR. There were some nervous bowlers out there, albeit some big names," Shastri told Star Sports after the match.
"They didn't bowl to a plan, they bowled both side of the wicket. It's very difficult for a captain to set a field when you are driven down the ground to the off side and you bowl some real ordinary stuff on middle and leg, which is clipped on the on-side without the batsmen having to take risks. I can understand if a batsman takes risk and it comes off good on him. But when you don't have to take risks and you are scoring at a fair clip then there is something wrong."
"GT were helped by some pretty ordinary overs in the middle from Rajasthan Royals because if you looked at their bowling performance, there were at least seven or eight big overs. If you concede over 12-13 runs in seven-eight overs of an innings, then you have to pay the price for it. Rajasthan Royals, especially, when they were bowling looked a little bit nervous and were taken apart."
Rajasthan Royals
Gujarat Titans