IPL 2023: ‘Losing quick wickets on difficult pitch affected our chances,’ says Royals coach Sangakkara

Rajasthan Royals head coach Kumar Sangakkara feels his aspect ought to have gotten over the road towards Lucknow Super Giants after it crashed to a ten-run defeat on the Sawai Mansingh Stadium right here on Wednesday.

Royals had been in management for many of the recreation, starting with a pointy bowling efficiency, which restricted LSG to 154 within the first innings. Their openers – Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler – guided them to 87 inside 12 overs, as a win seemed near sure earlier than LSG bowlers reined their chase in.

“Our openers put on a good stand. Unfortunately, we lost three wickets in three overs. We still should have gotten over the line. We had enough batting in the shed. Unfortunately, we left it a little bit too late and needed too many boundaries in the end,” stated Sangakkara.

“I think we got a better PowerPlay than them. It was all about targeting one or two over. Unfortunately, every time we tried to do that, we lost wickets. It was a difficult wicket to bat on and their [LSG] bowlers bowled smartly,” he added.

‘Idea was to take the game as deep as possible’

LSG’s combating win was constructed on a concerted bowling effort, with Avesh Khan main the road with figures of three/25. The right-arm pacer was given the duty of defending 19 runs off the final over. Despite going for a boundary of the primary ball, Avesh held his nerve to assist his aspect to a primary win over Royals.

Also Read | PBKS vs RCB, IPL 2023: Inconsistent Bangalore takes on Punjab Kings

“Our PowerPlay score wasn’t great. Even in the end, we couldn’t charge up our innings. But once we started bowling, we found out it wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on as there wasn’t any bounce. So, we decided to stick to our plans and defend what we have,” stated Avesh.

“We all know in IPL the game can change in one over. Our idea was to take the game as deep as possible. Once we got Sanju [Samson] and Jos Buttler out, we knew we were in this. In the huddle, we were saying let’s get as many dot balls as possible,” added Avesh.