IPL 2018: Rating the teams after their opening games
All eight teams participating in the Indian Premier League 2018 have played one match each in the tournament. While some of them have impressed with their terrific performances upfront, others have found it difficult to hit the ground running.
As expected, the teams batting second have had the upper hand and all the games of the tournament have been won by the chasing side so far.
Let us rate the teams with respect to their first look in the competition:
Rajasthan Royals: 3/10
The Rajasthan-based franchise was unable to make a strong comeback into the tournament after the two-year hiatus. RR slumped to a 9-wicket defeat against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opening game of the season at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Hyderabad on Monday (April 9).
After being in a strong position at 48-1 after the powerplay, the Ajinkya Rahane-led team lost eight wickets in the next 14 overs and could score just 77 runs to put up a meek total of 125-9 at the end of the first innings. They disintegrated before the might and mettle of the SRH bowling line-up.
Their bowling effort was just as abysmal. Defending a small total, they could scalp just one wicket and never looked in the game throughout the chase. The bowlers bowled too short or too wide and never posed a real threat to the home batsmen.
The fielding from RR was underwhelming too, as they dropped the dangerous Shikhar Dhawan for a duck in the very first over of the second innings.
Rahane and Shane Warne have a lot of issues to tend to before their next game on Wednesday (April 11). They must focus on initiating and augmenting improvement in all three aspects of their game.