Rajasthan Royals’ Kumar Sangakkara, Cricket Director for the team, has admitted that fatigue might have hampered their performance in latter stages of this year’s IPL.
Having won eight of their first nine games, RR was well-placed at the second spot.
The Sanju Samson-led side suffered four back-to-back defeats and had to settle with a third-place finish except for a wash out tie.
Despite beating Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Eliminator on Friday, Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated RR in Qualifier 2 played at Chennai.
” I think it was an amazing season for us. We started off well and then went on to lose a close game against SRH in Hyderabad and Delhi as well we put ourselves in winning positions,” he said during the post-match media interaction after his team lost by 36 runs to SRH.
“Stretches happen sometimes too. RCB lost almost every game at the start and then caught up. That’s how T20 goes. All we can do is put ourselves in positions of playoffs and vying for finals, which we did.
“I think all the guys throughout the season played phenomenal cricket. There was a little bit of fatigue towards the end but when you are playing these sort of games it doesn’t really matter. You just got to rock up and perform.”
RR kept losing wickets rapidly after reaching 65/2 from 8 overs while chasing a target of 176 runs and that proved fatal for them eventually.
In his analysis Sangakkara pointed out that middle order could have performed better.
“It was just being smart, keeping our composure basically-when you lose wickets in clusters becomes difficult,” he said.
“It does get tense even if you look at the chase against RCB whenever you lose wickets.. Unfortunately we needed a little more from our middle-order.”
Also missing for RR were Jos Buttler who is one of their key players in the top order.
According to Sangakkara, although he acknowledged that they had no control on international scheduling, other batters should have replaced them.
“We always say that the best ability is availability, and unfortunately, we lost Jos. He is a big loss, without a doubt,” he said.
When you are in a playoff like this and with that start without Jos, we expect the other batsmen too to step up.”
RR will be sending some players – Avesh Khan, Sanju Samson, Yuzvendra Chahal and Yashasvi Jaiswal- for the T20 World Cup in Americas next month.
With 19 wickets in 15 innings at an economy of 9.59, Avesh has been the team’s leading wicket-taker for this season as Sangakkara lauded him.
“We traded Devdutt Padikkal (to Lucknow Super Giants) for Avesh because knew how good he was and he’s shown that through out this tournament. And that’s why he’s also travelling reserve for India for this World Cup,” he said
“He’s got a great presence and good clarity. He’s very good at finishing off in the death. I think he’s been phenomenal for RR”.
“And we couldn’t ask for a better trier. He bowls so much in practice. He is always ready for a game of cricket. Again today I thought he was outstanding”.
He said, “I haven’t been reached out to, and I cannot do the India coaching job on a full-time basis. I am content with my time at Royals, and let’s see how it pans out.”
