Rather than holding back Jofra Archer and Jaydev Unadkat for the last four overs, the Royals captain went for wickets
Dustin Silgardo13-May-2018Rahane breaks conventionWith 15 overs gone, Jofra Archer and Jaydev Unadkat, Rajasthan Royals’ death-over specialists, had two overs left each. The expectation was that they would bowl the last four. But Mumbai Indians had lost four wickets and had two of their most dangerous hitters, the Pandya brothers, at the crease, with Ben Cutting set to come in next. So, Ajinkya Rahane decided to bowl out Archer and Unadkat by the 19th in the hope that they could pick up a couple of wickets and leave Ben Stokes to bowl to JP Duminy in the 20th. It was an aggressive move from a captain, who attracts criticism for being too conventional. And it would have worked if Archer had held on to a simple catch to dismiss Cutting in the 19th. Despite the drop, Stokes went for a respectable 13 in the last over.Jos Buttler has scored most of Rajasthan Royals’ runs in May•ESPNcricinfo LtdBlinders and bloopersIn the 11th over, Rohit Sharma hooked an Archer bouncer flat and hard towards fine leg. Jaydev Unadkat got his hands up, grabbed it and then stared at the ball, seemingly shocked at how quickly it had come to him and that he had managed to hold on. Unfortunately for Unadkat, it was nothing compared to the shock he felt in the 19th over, when Cutting toe-ended one of his offcutters and the ball looped up so slowly and gently to Archer at point that Cutting was almost walking off, only for Archer to somehow drop it.It was not the first catch Royals had dropped on Sunday. In the second over, K Gowtham dived forward from mid-on but could not get his hands around a catch that would have dismissed Suryakumar Yadav for 9. In the next over, Stuart Binny settled under a skier from Evin Lewis, then on 5, but he dropped it as it came down. It seemed like Royals had just two players who could take a catch clean: Unadkat, who took two, and Sanju Samson, who tried to make up for the rest of his team’s failures with three. Samson had to run back and take a reverse-cupped catch at deep midwicket to dismiss Ishan Kishan, and in the final over, he ran to his right, dived and held on while in the air to remove Hardik Pandya. Jos Buttler’s May madnessSince the start of this month, Jos Buttler has scored half of all Rajasthan Royals’ runs in the IPL. He’s equalled the record for most consecutive IPL fifties – five – and his last three scores are 82, 95 not out and 94 not out, all in wins. He’s done it all at a strike rate of 161.53. It’s the kind of hot streak that might get psychologists to finally believe in hot streaks. The only worry for Rajasthan Royals is that if he does get out cheaply, the other batsmen might get disoriented just by the sight of someone else at the other end.Mayank Markande’s smart economy rate in his last six games is 10.27•ESPNcricinfo LtdA season of two halves for MarkandeAfter the first six games of Mumbai’s season, young legspinner Mayank Markande was the side’s top wicket-taker, with 10. His smart economy rate was 7.04, third best in the team. At just 20, he was becoming the man Rohit Sharma threw the ball to when he most needed a strike and was drawing comparisons with Rashid Khan, one of the best T20 bowlers in the world. But the next six games have seen Markande’s stocks slide dramatically. He’s taken just four wickets in the last six, and his smart economy rate has been 10.27, which means he’s cost his team 22 runs – more than any other bowler. Batsmen seem to have begun picking his variations, and Buttler looked at ease against him in this game.
