IPL 2021: "Chris Morris is not a patch on the player we saw for RR in the first half" - Aakash Chopra

Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra reckons that the Rajasthan Royals (RR) have only themselves to blame for the defeat against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). As per Chopra, it wasn’t a case of SRH spoiling their party as RR’s key players, starting with Chris Morris, let the team down.

RR went down to bottom-placed SRH by seven wickets in Dubai on Monday in Match 40 of the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) in Dubai. RR posted 164 for 5 batting first, which SRH chased down without trouble.

In an interaction post the game, Chopra stated that RR were lackadaisical with both bat and ball and hence didn’t deserve to win.

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“Would you actually look at it as somebody spoiling your party or you’d look inward and say that we were simply not good enough, which Rajasthan weren’t? If you look at how they finished their innings, the last two overs didn’t produce much with the bat. When they came out to bowl, they just couldn’t put it together,” the former cricketer told ESPN Cricinfo.

Elaborating on RR’s bowling, the 44-year-old pointed out that Morris has been the biggest disappointment of all.

“The first over Chetan Sakariya bowled was the 12th over of the innings, don’t know what happened there. Chris Morris, in the opening game of the second leg and in this match, is not a patch on the player we saw for RR in the first half. If there is no Jofra (Archer), Jos Butter and (Ben) Stokes, you are really clutching at straws. Then you are looking at your overseas players and saying - please stand up and get counted,” Chopra added.

34-year-old Morris became the most expensive player purchased in the history of the IPL when RR spent a whopping INR 16.5 crore on him at the auction.

“If your slow bowlers are going to be run-stoppers, you cannot pull a lot of points” - Chopra on RR's bowling

According to Chopra, RR’s use of their spinners has been baffling. He pointed out that slow bowlers who stop runs cannot win games for the franchise.

“They have Shreyas Gopal and Mayank Markande in the squad but they don’t play them at all. Markande hasn’t played a single game while Gopal might have played a couple. If your slow bowlers are going to be just run-stoppers, you cannot pull a lot of points in your direction,” Chopra elaborated

Asked how strong a chance RR have of making the IPL 2021 playoffs, the cricket expert bluntly replied:

“(RR) Kiss your chances goodbye.”

Rajasthan will come up against Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata in their remaining four IPL 2021 league encounters.