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'They thought Buttler will bat the same way he did in last match': Tendulkar points out RR's glaring error in IPL final
There are a few reasons behind RR's defeat, but India legend Sachin Tendulkar pointed out a glaring mistake that the team made.
The Rajasthan Royals came close to winning their second IPL title but fell short to Gujarat Titans in the summit clash. Royals captain Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to bat first, after which the Titans bowlers strangled them, eventually restricting RR to a meagre 130/9, a total that was overhauled by ease as GT won the match by seven wickets and with 11 balls to spare.
There are a few reasons behind RR's defeat, but India legend Sachin Tendulkar pointed out a glaring mistake that the team made. Tendulkar stated he was surprised by Samson's decision to bat first and put runs on the board, saying that he felt since RR had played second Qualifier at the same ground, they could have exploited the pitch to their advantage.
"In the final, Rajasthan won the toss and surprisingly batted first. If you would have seen the previous match, Rajasthan bowled first and their bowlers had gotten an off the seam movement. But today, they batted first I don’t know why. Maybe in a big match, they wanted to bat first, but on this ground, Gujarat had never played. RR had the advantage of knowing how this wicket behaves. So I believe that had Rajasthan bowled first, the pressure would have been on Gujarat," Tendulkar said on his YouTube video.
Sachin offered his take on Buttler's indifferent innings. The Orange Cap winner with four centuries, Buttler reached 39 off 35 balls and looked to explode like he did against GT in Q1, but this time, it wasn’t to be as he edged Hardik to the keeper. Tendulkar explained the fact that RR’s top order hardly fired this season is what tied up Buttler.
"In the previous game, the way Buttler had batted, they (GT) thought will bat the same way he did in last match, so for that, they would need to put up a big total. But unfortunately for RR, Buttler was only getting support from Sanju Samson. Rest of the batter couldn't contribute as the team would have expected them to. You expect at least 50 percent of your batters to deliver but since that did not happen, Buttler was playing in a different manner. He was hoping for a phase where he could attack but it became too much for him to fight this battle alone," mentioned Sachin.
