Steve Smith Rues Another Top-Order Collapse After RR's Third Consecutive Defeat In IPL 2020

Steve Smith, Rajasthan Royals skipper, has lamented the loss of early wickets and the inability of the top-3 in providing a good start after his team succumbed to a 57-run-defeat against defending champions, Mumbai Indians in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

Just like the last two games, Rajasthan Royals suffered an early collapse during their run-chase of 194 as the pace-bowling duo of Mumbai Indians- Trent Boult [2-26] and Jasprit Bumrah [4-20] ran riot to dismiss Yashasvi Jaiswal [0], skipper Steve Smith [6] and Sanju Samson [0], leaving the team reeling at 3-12.

The Royals were in the game till Jos Buttler  [70 off 44 balls] was at the crease but post his dismissal- courtesy a stunning catch by Kieron Pollard- Jasprit Bumrah proceeded to clean up the lower middle-order to once again expose the batting issues, something Steve Smith admitted in the post-match interview.

”I think losing wickets early doesn’t help, we haven’t been able to get off to a good start in the last three games. Outside of Jos and Archer at the end, we have a bit of work to do on our batting,” Steve Smith said.

 

‘It is just about implementing our plans’- Steve Smith

Steve Smith ruled out the possibility of Ben Stokes making it to the Royals next fixture against the Capitals [October 09]. Stokes is currently undergoing a six-day isolation and should be available for the match against SRH on 11th October.

He (Stokes) is not out till the 10th I think. He is not too far away, hopefully we can get a few wins before he’s back and then gain momentum.

Rajasthan Royals have now lost three games on the bounce but Steve Smith asserted that there it’s not got to the stage where they should start panicking.

I don’t think we need to panic too much, it is just about implementing our plans and playing some good cricket for longer.  We haven’t been able to do that in the last three games and we have to turn it around quickly. Hopefully, get a bit of momentum.