Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 23 (ANI): Before facing Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as visitors, Rajasthan Royals’ head coach Rahul Dravid stated that the team must avoid making significant errors since only six matches remain in their league phase.
An underperforming RR team, which has suffered defeats in six of their last eight encounters and currently faces a four-game losing skid, is set to face RCB. The latter have emerged victorious in each of their past five away fixtures yet failed to win any of their recent trio of matches held at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. They aim to overcome this hurdle when they meet on Wednesday.
In their most recent matches against Delhi Capitals (DC) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), RR required nine runs off the last over both times. However, they ended up losing these games—one through a super over due to a tie and the other by just two runs.
Ahead of the match at the pre-game press conference, Dravid stated according to ESPNCricinfo, “We understand that performing well will keep us competitive in this tournament. We’ve had a few narrow losses recently, yet we’ve also delivered solid performances. This competition is such that slight adjustments could place us in a better standing; however, excelling during key junctures remains essential.”
So far, the pitch in Bengaluru has posed significant challenges for batsmen during the opening innings. In recent matches, Royal Challengers Bangalore’s first-innings scores have been 169 for 8, 163 for 7, and 95 for 9 within just 14 overs. Despite strong performances from their bowlers, RCB suffered losses in all of their home games.
Regarding the batting strategy on these challenging wickets, Dravid commented, “Well, you simply must take it on regardless, as that’s a certainty. However, each pitch will vary. The previous one, after discussing with the groundstaff, had been covered up for quite an extended duration, hence it might not serve as a reliable benchmark.”
What I can see of the pitch here seems like a really good one. Given that I have limited information about previous matches’ pitches, I’m unable to compare them directly. However, based on what we’re looking at now, this appears to be an excellent cricket pitch, which suggests that we might witness quite a high-scoring match.
“As I mentioned before, this match holds great significance for us. From now on, every game counts based on our current standing, and we can’t afford too many errors. It’s crucial that we begin moving up the standings rapidly and secure victories swiftly; there is simply no room for missteps at this point,” he went on to say.
When questioned about clubs frequently losing at their own venues during this campaign, Dravid commented that only the Gujarat Titans (GT), Delhi Capitals (DC), and Mumbai Indians (MI) have registered more victories than defeats when playing at home.
I’m uncertain about the expectations certain franchises had from their curators or pitch presentations. However, I believe one factor is the home advantage; usually, these teams are brand new too, correct? This marks the beginning of a significant auction period, so many players, despite being local talents, will be representing those teams or stadiums for the very first time.
Take Phil Salt as an instance; he played for KKR before joining RCB, making his debut with our team. Similarly, Nitish Rana wasn’t part of our squad previously but now competes under us this season. Hence, for these players, Jaipur feels somewhat like uncharted territory.
“Perhaps at times, I believe that during major auctions where there’s often a shift in squads and teams, the element of home advantage might not seem very crucial initially. However, as the season progresses further into its cycle, this factor could become increasingly noticeable, since your own players would have had more time to train and familiarize themselves with the venue compared to opposing teams,” he stated. (ANI)
Provided by Syndigate Media Inc. (
Syndigate.info
).
