SRH vs RR: English stars disappoint badly
The Rajasthan Royals only managed a humiliating 125 batting first against the Sunrisers Hyderabad and ultimately suffered a nine-wicket defeat. The only batsman to look in good touch was Sanju Samson who hit a classy 49.
On paper the Rajasthan Royals batting unit looked very strong, boasting of D'Arcy Short, Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Tripathi, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler. However, Short ran himself out in the first over and skipper Rahane looked uncomfortable for most of his innings.
The two English overseas stars, Stokes and Buttler, failed badly at a time when the Royals desperately needed them to perform. Their inability to score runs at the end of the innings meant that the Royals slumped to a total well below par. It was a night to forget for the two Englishmen.
Ben Stokes
All-rounder Ben Stokes had a very poor evening. It started with the bat, as he walked in with the score at 52-2 (6.5). Stokes failed to pick Rashid Khan at all and struggled seriously. The young Afghan spinner was all over him and constantly beat the edge. Stokes had no answer to him.
The pressure built up as Stokes failed to find the boundary and was on 5 (7). This led to him attempting a big shot off Billy Stanlake, but he horrendously mistimed it. It barely even carried to long on, but SRH captain Kane Williamson took a great catch (on the second attempt) after running in from the deep. This brought about a fitting end to a painful inning from Ben Stokes.
There had been some questions over Stokes' ability to bowl, given his recent injury problems. However, he was thrown the ball in the eighth over when Shikhar Dhawan and Kane Williamson were just beginning to get going.
His first two balls were dispatched disdainfully by Dhawan four two fours, as Stokes first bowled a leg-side short ball and then a wayward attempted yorker. Stokes never really settled down for that, bowling a wide in the same over, and was then hit for two boundaries in his second and final over.
His bowling was tame and mediocre - it was the definition of nothing bowling. This was reflected in his overall figures of 2-0-21-0, it was not the performance you would expect from the man of the tournament last year.
Jos Buttler
It is hard to think of many T20 players who are more entertaining than England's keeper-batsman Jos Buttler. Last night, though, he looked like a completely different player. He walked into the crease with Rajasthan needing a counter-attacking inning to salvage their innings.
Buttler failed to provide this and only lasted nine balls at the crease, contributing just six runs. He was beaten by Siddarth Kaul's pace early on and once again failed to read Rashid Khan's variations. In the end, his failure to pick Khan's googly led to his downfall as he dragged the ball onto his stumps. This effectively ended Rajasthan's hopes of posting a competitive total.
There is a case to be said that Buttler is batting too low down the order to be effective. In previous years he has even opened for the Mumbai Indians, but last night he found himself batting at six.
Buttler is arguably the best T20 batsman in their side and you have to give your best batsman the most number of balls. If D'Arcy Short fails to score again, it could be the case that they turn to the keeper to open the batting. Perhaps this low position in the order could be part of the reason why Buttler struggled to adapt to the situation and conditions.