Former South African bowling legend Shaun Pollock was surprised by the Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson’s captaincy against the defending champions Gujarat Titans on Friday. The 2022 finalist suffered a heavy defeat by nine wickets as the Hardik Pandya-led side chased down the total within 14 overs.
Nothing went right for the Rajasthan Royals against GT, as they had a disastrous start in the batting losing their openers Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal, as the middle order got exposed to the quality Gujarat Titans attacks as their spinners Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad picked the important wickets in regular intervals to bowl them out for 118 runs in 17.5 overs.
In Chase, Gujarat Titans batted beautifully with their openers taking on the Rajasthan Royals pacers in the powerplay, as the home team could not come into the game at any stage of the match, as they did not pick the wickets in the middle overs.
Cricketer-turned-commentator Shaun Pollock is baffled by Sanju Samson’s strategy to hold back his spinners, as they proved to be a vital weapon for him in the bowling team, and feels that if he should have brought the spinners in the powerplay.
“I was a little bit surprised by some of the tactics employed there. After 1-2 overs, you realized that it wasn’t swinging. So, they were late to get to the spinners to look if maybe if they could have had an impact, was a little bit of a surprise,” Shaun Pollock said.
Rajasthan Royals bowlers had a poor outing with the ball as Yuzvendra Chahal was the lone wicket-taker for their side picking up the wicket of Shubman Gill before the GT skipper launched a fiery attack to score 39 runs off just 15 balls including taking on Australia’s Adam Zampa for 24 runs in 11th overs to seal the game for his side.
There Wasn’t Much On The Surface For Bowlers – Shaun Pollock On RR’s Poor Batting Performance
Shaun Pollock expressed his disappointment on Rajasthan Royals’ batting performance against Gujarat Titans, as none of the batters applied their technique as they fell in packs to Afghan bowling duo Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad in the middle overs.
“There wasn’t much on the surface, it is got to be disappointing to be bowled out for 118. The ease with which they reached 119 just shows that it was a batting meltdown rather than anything to do with the conditions”, Shaun Pollock added.
Rajasthan Royals have lost four games out of their last five games and will look to make a strong comeback against the 2016 champions Sunrisers Hyderabad in the next match on May 7 in Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur.