‘We needed more runs’: Vikram Solanki on Gujarat Titans' loss to Royals

RR’s Shimron Hetmyer in full flow during his unbeaten 56 against GT in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Pic/PTI

The think-tank of defending champions Gujarat Titans will keep scratching their heads to figure out where did they go wrong to lose their second successive IPL-16 home game, this time to Rajasthan Royals at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Sunday. First, they failed to be consistent with their run rate of 10 at the end of 10 overs. They managed only a run- a-ball 37 in the six middle overs. Then, when they almost had the Royals on the ropes, they let the game slip away, failing to defend 177.

RR's initial struggle

While chasing, Rajasthan Royals looked down in the dumps (66-4) after 12 overs. They needed 111 runs in eight overs and their top four batters had returned to the pavilion. They added 28 runs in the next three overs, but lost skipper Sanju Samson (60, 32 balls, 3x4, 6x6) to Gujarat Titans' impact player, Noor Ahmad. In the next 20 balls, they added 47 runs as Shimron Hetmyer (56, 26 balls, 2x4, 5x6) ran amok and No. 8 Ravichandran Ashwin finished the game with a winning boundary in the second ball of the 20th over.

Vikram Solanki

Titans first lost their plot when they scored 15 to 20 runs less. Then, when they had chance to tighten the noose on the Royals, their bowlers let them off the hook. Answering a question by mid-day, Gujarat Titans Director of Cricket, Vikram Solanki, said that to say the team lost the plot was a step too far. "I think losing the plot is probably exaggerating the phrase. Yes, we certainly could have been a little more proactive. We would have liked to have posted a little bit more," he explained.

Also Read: Gujarat Titans look to forget Rinku Singh's onslaught against Punjab Kings

Comedy of errors

Trent Boult gave Rajasthan Royals a good start in the first over when he sent back Wriddhiman Saha in the third ball and that ‘comical catch' became a talking point. Sanju Samson, Dhruv Jurel and Hetmyer went for the catch raising an alarm for a scary collision but Boult, standing a yard or two away, grabbed the rebound. "It is one of those crazy ones where it goes high in the dark skies. Obviously, in this amazing crowd, you can't hear much. I'd call myself lucky, probably just right place at the right time," he said with a laugh, about that catch.

Strategy to rotate bowlers helped us restrict Titans: Sanju Samson

Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson attributed his team's maiden win against defending champions Gujarat Titans to its strategy to rotate the bowlers, which helped the 2008 IPL champions to restrict Hardik Pandya's side to 177 here on Sunday.

This is the Royals' first win against the Titans as they had lost all three matches in IPL 2022, including the final. "I'm very happy to be on the winning side. I think it was very important to rotate the bowlers. They were going hard at our spinners. After the timeout, they were playing some quality cricket shots and we needed to respect that but I'm very proud of our team for restricting them to a 170-odd score," said Samson.

The Royals' slow bowlers Adam Zampa and Ravichandran Ashwin came in for some harsh treatment from Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya in the seventh and eighth overs and timely rotation of bowlers - bringing in Trent Boult and Yuzvendra Chahal - curtailed the runs.