IPL 2018, RR vs SRH: 5 reasons why Rajasthan Royals loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad

The first of today’s doubleheader saw the Ajinkya Rahane led Rajasthan Royals take on the Kane Williamson's Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Sawai Man Singh stadium at Jaipur.

Williamson won the toss and opted to bat first. Sunrisers started off slowly but gathered momentum in the middle overs courtesy an excellent partnership between Alex Hales and Williamson.

However, some excellent death bowling from the Royals ensured that Hyderabad were restricted to a score of 151.

In reply, Rajasthan got off to a cautious start but lost three quick wickets in the middle overs. In the end, a fifty by Rahane was not enough for the Royals as they fell short by 11 runs. Let us have a look at five reasons why the Royals lost.

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#1 Dropped catch of Williamson

Williamson made 63 off 43 balls

Kane Williamson has been the mainstay of Hyderabad’s batting line up this season. He has been amongst the leading run scorers in this edition of the IPL.

In the fifth over, Jofra Archer managed to induce an edge from the kiwi but Rahul Tripathi dropped a dolly of a catch at first slip.

Williamson was batting at a score of 11 at that time. He made the most of the dropped chance and went on to play a sublime knock of 63 runs off 43 balls.

It turned out to be a big moment in the match.

#2 The big guns fail again

Stokes and Buttler failed to make an impact

Rajasthan has built their batting line up around the likes of Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler. But both of them have failed to repay the faith imposed on them by the team management.

Stokes departed without troubling the scorers, losing his wicket to the part-time off-spin of Yusuf Pathan. Buttler played an irresponsible shot and gave the simplest of catches to Dhawan off the bowling of Rashid Khan.

Both the Englishmen need to step up their game if the Royals have to have any chance of qualifying for the playoffs.

#3 Strange batting order

Lomror was sent ahead of Archer and Gowtham

Krishanappa Gowtham was the hero of the last match as his big hitting cameo got the Royals past the finishing line against the Mumbai Indians.

Archer is also known for providing some meaty blows at the end. However, the Rajasthan team management made a blunder of sorts by sending the inexperienced Mahipal Lomror ahead of both of Gowtham and Archer.

Rajasthan needed 56 runs off the last six overs at that stage. The youngster failed to connect with his shots and it led to the required run rate crossing the 12 runs per over mark.

When Lomror got out, Royals needed 24 runs off nine balls. His struggling knock eventually cost Royals the game.

#4 Excellent outing for Sunrisers’s pacers

Kaul had another brilliant outing for SRH

Defending a below-par score of 151 runs, Hyderabad needed their young pace attack to step up in the absence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Sandeep Sharma bowled an excellent spell at the start of Royals' innings, not giving any free runs to the batsmen. Sharma went for just 15 runs of his allotted overs and picked up the wicket of Tripathi as well.

He was ably supported by Siddharth Kaul who was again spot on with his line and lengths. Kaul picked up two wickets and conceded just 23 runs off his four overs.

The task of defending 21 runs of the last over fell to Basil Thampi and the youngster did not disappoint, conceding just 9 runs.

#5 Rahane’s slow knock

Rahane's knock of 65 went in vain

It is often said that the in-between totals are the hardest to chase as batsmen are not quite sure of when to press the accelerator.

The same story unfolded today as Rahane took his time while chasing the target. Opening the batting, Rahane played the sheet anchor role to perfection at the start but once the big guns got out it was his responsibility to play the big shots.

However, he failed to pick up the boundaries at the end of their innings. Eventually, his laborious knock of 65 runs off 53 balls was not enough and the Royals fell short by 11 runs.

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