“You can’t just walk in and tee off here,” the announcer said of the pitch.
As good a cricket match condition judge as there is is R Ashwin. Even if Jaipur is only his adoptive home, he was right on the money.
When you can rely on the bounce, batting is at its best. You require it to penetrate the line. To slog across it, you need it. It must feel comfortable at the crease. And when it disappears, events like this game take place.
Trent Boult’s maiden over was the opening over for Rajasthan Royals’ bowlers, and they managed to get the ball to skid through low enough that it was tough to get under it or apply power to it. They also refused to give up the stumps; according to the ball-by-ball statistics provided by ESPNcricinfo, 94 of the 120 balls landed on or near the line of those three LED sticks.
As a result, Lucknow Super Giants had very little opportunity to engage in their power game. They were not allowed to travel too far. Their arms would not release. Their powerplay score of 37 for 0 was easily the lowest of the season with no wickets lost.
KL Rahul and Kyle Mayers, to their credit, gained some momentum. They went for the one bowler who wasn’t a good fit for these circumstances. Yuzvendra Chahal excels at chucking the ball wide and up in the air, taking advantage of sloggers’ eagerness to hit him on the leg side and catching them off guard with mishits. He attempted that, but Mayers and Rahul were able to make a clean connection. After that, he tried bowling shorter, but because he moves slowly through the air, they simply sat up to be hit.
On top of a 13-run over, Super Giants had constructed an 18-run over. They were 0 for 74 in nine, and ESPNcricinfo predicted they would score 173. They came in at 154.
And the pitch had a role in that. It can be upsetting to see Rahul, who owns the record for the quickest fifty in the competition—a 14-ball blitz in 2018—complete the IPL with the third-lowest strike rate among players who have scored at least 50 runs this year, 114.79. However, he wasn’t at fault this time. Even a player of the caliber of Jos Buttler was 5 off 14 early on, while a batter of the caliber of Shimron Hetmyer got caught somewhere around the 30-yard line when he was trying to cover the entire field.
Simply put, Jaipur missed the memo. It put out the red carpet for those who follow the incorrect discipline in its first IPL match in over four years. Additionally, there was no dew. Therefore, batters had to contend with it coming on rough in addition to not being able to get under the ball. It’s what caused 10 of the chase’s 20 overs to result in six runs or fewer.
Mayers, who had the game’s highest total with 51 off 42, remarked, “It’s not one of those innings that I dream of playing,” before elaborating on why it had been so tough to get runs.
“The hardest part was the unpredictable bounce. You believed you had the length to get under the wicket given the way their bowlers were using it, but it was slippery and difficult to get under. So I simply focused on shooting straight. Additionally, I made an effort to give the bowlers my stumps and hit as frequently through the outside edge as I could.
