IPL 2020: Our batters were not able to take the game deep, says Steve Smith

Rajasthan Royals skipper Steve Smith was disappointed by the team's performance, especially the batsmen, after their defeat to Delhi Capitals by 13 runs. Chasing 162 runs to win the game, the RR opening pair of Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes gave them a flying start, and they looked to be in complete control of the chase.

However, Buttler, Stokes, Sanju Samson were not able to convert their starts into half-century scores, and that is what Smith believes hurt RR the most. In the end, RR could only manage 148-8 in their 20 overs, and now have only 3 wins from 8 games in IPL 2020 so far.

"We got off to a good start with Jos and Stokesy, then we lost a couple wickets and got another partnership between Stokesy and Sanju, then again lost wickets in clumps and on slow wickets it is hard to make up too many runs at the backend. We needed to take it a bit deeper from some of our batters and we were not able to do that," Steve Smith said after the game.

We bowled well to restrict Delhi Capitals to 160-odd: Steve Smith

Steve Smith praised his bowlers for restricting DC to 161.

Steve Smith credited his bowlers for restricting the Delhi Capitals to a score of 161 in their 20 overs. He thought it was a par score and a good start with the bat meant that RR were ahead in the game.

But he believes the batsmen need to take more responsibility and take the team home. However, he is hopeful that RR will bounce back strongly in their next game.

"We thought we bowled well at the back end and restricted them to 160-odd, that was probably around par on this wicket. And the opening partnership got us ahead in the game but we couldn't extend those partnerships, boys were getting in and getting out, not going on to make 50 or 60," Steve Smith said.

RR will now play their next game against the Royal Challengers Bangalore on 17th October at Dubai, and will be hopeful of learning from their mistakes and getting back to winning ways.