Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) batsman Robin Uthappa said that their batsmen could have taken a little bit more time to understand the pace of the wicket, after their loss to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Wednesday, 30 September, in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
“In hindsight, you always feel like you could have taken a little bit more time. We got a sense that the wicket changed a little bit post the first innings, it started stopping a little bit. Obviously [it was] a used wicket. I think towards the end, wicket started getting tired.”
RR were reduced to 42/5 in the 8th over, due to some excellent line and lengths from the KKR pacers and some rash shots from the Royals’ batsmen.
After playing their first two games at the Sharjah Stadium, this was Royals’ first game in Dubai, which has a much bigger ground and longer boundaries comparatively. Asked about if practising on the smaller ground such as Sharjah affected their adjustment to Dubai, Uthappa denied it saying that they played their practice matches at bigger grounds. He added that as their team plays more games in Dubai, they will get better suited to it.
On his skipper Steve Smith’s decision to bowl first, Uthappa said that coming from a big win chasing the target, there was a lot of confidence in the team. “We felt that this wicket will play well and in the last few games at Dubai, teams batting second have been able to chase down big scores,” said the 34-year-old adding that batsmen could have taken time before taking the attack to the opposition.
Asked about left-arm fast bowler Jaydev Unadkat bowling just two overs, Uthappa said that having 6-7 bowlers in the side is a luxury, so everyone may not end up bowling his quota of overs. “The thought process was that we save Jofra for someone like Russell so that we could look to get him out and that’s why JD (Unadkat) wasn’t gone [to] towards the end.”
On whether RR batsmen’s approach of going after the bowling from ball one could have changed seeing the wicket, Uthappa said that their batting lineup plays a certain brand of cricket and would continue doing that but with a better assessment of the wicket, adding that this loss will hold them in good stead.
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