According to Rajasthan Royals Head Coach Kumar Sangakkara, it was dew that played around during their 5-run loss against Punjab Kings on Tuesday. It was captain Shikhar Dhawan who starred the bat by scoring 86 runs alongside Prabhsimran Singh who also came up with a 60 off 34 balls and both powered Punjab to a match-winning 197/4.
“Tough game. We had conditions that were not quite familiar to us…heavy dew but I thought at the end of the day, when you look at how close we got we still know that, except for a few areas in that game, we were right in it,” said Sangakkara while interacting with players in the dressing room.
However, former Sri Lanka legend lauded speedsters Trent Boult and Asif for their splendid efforts with the ball.
“I thought the way we bowled, they probably should have got 210, 215. But I know the bowlers did a great job to pull them back,” he said.
“So from fast bowlers Boulty (Trent Boult) and Asif, that’s great work under tough conditions, well done.” A special mention, of course, to Jason Holder. That was fantastic,” he added.
Ace spinners like Ashwin and Chahal also controlled the run flow and took the wickets of Jitesh and Sikandra Raza in quick succession.
“Yuzi (Yuzvendra Chahal) buddy, you tried hard. That’s the way conditions are, right? Tough look today but you managed to still fight it through but the way Ash (R Ashwin) controlled it, the way you bowled from the powerplay onwards was fantastic.”
“Being an impact sub is new guys. It’s not easy to get your head around the fact of making a debut and doing what he did. I thought Dhruv was outstanding,” said Sanga as he heaped praise on the impact player Dhruv Jorel.