IPL 2018: How KKR breached RR fortress to climb to the top of points table

Losing one match in a tournament where you get to play 14 matches is no big deal, but losing a fortress is distressing. RR lost their fortress when they were beaten by KKR in Jaipur on Wednesday

In the 15th match of Indian Premier League 2018 (IPL 2018), a Rajasthan Royals (RR) victory against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) could have meant two things. First, RR would have managed to stay in the top four on the Vivo IPL points table 2018 and strengthened their position. And second, RR would have stretched their winning streak at Sawai Mansingh stadium to 10 matches. But that did not happen. What happened was the exact opposite. 

Dinesh Karthik-led KKR won the toss and invited Ajinkya Rahane's RR to bat first. While Ajinkya Rahane hit Sunil Narine for four fours in a row, D’Arcy Short at the other end made sure all of Rahane's efforts to increase the run rate would go waste. He consumed so many deliveries due to his inability to play spin bowling that Rahane was forced to go for extravagant shots. 

Rahane was eventually dismissed for 36. To his credit, he had to do what he was trying to do, but a little more caution from Rahane’s side could have changed things. Sanju Samson came in after Rahane's departure and the Jaipur crowd backed him with the chants of 'Sanju Sanju'. Alas, Sanju failed to live up to his name while batting. With D' Arcy Short continuing with his tiringly slow innings, the onus to increase the run rate fell on Samson. He played a loose shot and gave his wicket away. What is crucial here is that his wicket created an imbalance for the middle-order. So far in IPL 2018, Sanju Samson had anchored the innings and also scored runs. But with his dismissal, RR found themselves in the middle of a chaos. 

Promoting Rahul Tripathi up the order did not take the opposition by surprise. KKR bowlers stuck to the basics and left the rest to batsmen’s callousness. The outcome was in lines with expectations: Rahul Tripathi failed to show character and was dismissed cheaply while trying to clear the fence in a relatively big ground.  And this was not just Tripathi's misadventure. Ben Stokes and Jos Butler tried the same and failed miserably. Ben Stokes, it seems, really needs to pull up his socks. He is the all-rounder in the team whom youngsters look up to. He has been failing in all departments of the game; in the four games played so far, he has yet to produce a performance worthy of his name and price at which he was bought by the franchise. 

RR batsmen targetted Sunil Narine. Well, that is one way of putting it. Narine bowled the most expensive spell of his IPL career, giving away 48 runs in 4 overs and not taking any wicket. Quite unusual it was to see Narine among the run-leakers. However, RR batsmen could not do the same to KKR’s other spinners. Both Kuldeep Yadav and Piyush Chawla were very economical and picked up wickets. So, in a way, Narine had a bad outing, and not the other way around. 

Another thing that was very baffling was RR batsmen’s desperation to clear the ground. Unnecessary attempts to hit lofted shots to score fours and sixes did them in, as the ground was too big for trying misadventures. Keeping the ball on the ground and piercing the in-field to create chances of quick singles and doubles would perhaps been more rational – and if the placement was correct, boundaries would also have come easily. Rahane did show this could be done, but no other batsmen seemed to follow in the captain's footsteps. The result: A small total of 160 to defend. Jos Butler tired hard to put up a face-saving performance, but it was too late. 

KKR showed how to chase a total of 161 on a huge ground. Despite losing Chris Lynn in the very first over, KKR never seemed to be in any difficulty. Let's put it this way, despite taking Chris Lynn's wicket on the second ball of the match, RR could not put any pressure on any KKR batsman. Dhawal Kulkarni started leaking runs from the beginning, as if RR had 200 to defend and not 160. He was very ordinary with the ball and had no strategy to deal with the KKR batsmen. 

The bowler who deserves a mention was Jaydev Unadkat, the costliest Indian purchase in the IPL 2018 auctions. What has he done in IPL 2018 so far? Nothing, really. He has been battered and butchered in all matches played so far. We must know that this is no debutant but a seasoned campaigner. But he has shown no class, no tactics, no discipline! His poor performance only kills the morale of the rest of the team. Unadkat needs to rise up to the occasion, very soon. The same goes for Ben Laughlin and Ben Stokes. The KKR kept rotating the strike and hit the big ones whenever possible, and they won the match by 7 wickets. 

The RR coach, Shane Warne, is on a small leave. He was there for the team to guide. The reason why Warne is being mentioned here is that he was the mentor and player for RR in the first edition of IPL, in 2008. He made it very clear to his team that no matter what, they had to win all home games. Each team plays 7 home games. By that calculation, if a team wins all home games, it gets 14 points in the kitty, making it easier to qualify for the playoffs. Warne engraved the idea of making Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur the fortress for RR. With this defeat, RR let KKR breach the fortress held for 9 matches straight. Losing one match in a tournament where you get to play 14 matches is no big deal. But losing the fortress is distressing. RR lost that fortress. It has now too much to think and do in order to rebuild the lost fortress.