Rajasthan Royal’s 4th loss of the season led them to go 7th in the points table and are now only ahead of Sunrisers Hyderabad. Rajasthan gave Mumbai Indians a total of 172 to chase, MI batsmen chased it down without any difficulty, and Rajsthan bowlers failed to create any obstacle for the batsmen. But there were many small battles apart from the war RR lost. Here are 3 reasons why Rajasthan lost against Mumbai Indians.

1. Less total despite getting a good start

The kind of RR got from the openers Jaiswal and Buttler, less than 200 was not a satisfying total for them. The openers gave the start they would have wanted and scored quick runs. When Jaiswal went out in the 10th over the run rate was 9. Having 8 wickets in hand for more than 4-5 overs left, a team should go for big hits and score some good runs. Rajasthan made a mess in the last overs and they lost wickets when they had to change the gear. Credit to MI bowlers to restrict them but Rajsthan should have scored at least15-20 runs in the last overs.

2. Failure of middle-order

There is no doubt that the middle order fell short in scoring runs. Surely, players like Stokes are missed and the scenes would have been different if he would have been there on the ground. Shivam Dube came before David Miller to bat. Despite scoring some fine shots, his inning was slow. RR was on the hot seat when the openers were batting a total of 200 looked easy but the middle order’s slow runs costed Rajasthan.

3. Unconfident Captaincy

The captain scored some good runs but some of his decisions were poor that led RR to face its 4th loss. Sending Shivam Dube ahead of Miller might have been not his decisions on the field looked uncertain from Sanju Samson. De Kock’s LBW decision was reviewed by Samson when it was all clear that there were two sounds. Morris came a little late and the field was also not so well placed to put pressure on the Mumbai batsmen. After Suryakumar Yadav got out, Mumbai players were struggling for the next few over. But somehow they rotated the strike and didn’t let the asking rate trouble them. Samson must have to make his decisions wisely if RR wants to go into the playoffs.