Rajasthan Royals succumbed to a heavy defeat yesterday at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad. In the night match played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, SRH won the encounter with 9 wickets remaining. Throughout the course of the match, the home team looked in complete control, not giving an inch to the Rajasthan Royals, who were making their comeback to the IPL after two years.

Discussing the result and his analysis of the match, Ajinkya Rahane pointed out a few reasons why his team failed so miserably in its opening encounter. Rajasthan Royals appointed Ajinkya Rahane as the team captain after Steve Smith was ruled out of the IPL owing to the Ball-tampering controversy.

Being inserted to bat first, after losing the toss, Rajasthan Royals opened with the captain Ajinkya Rahane and the debutant Aussie opener D’Arcy Short. After Short’s runout in the first over, Rahane also found the going difficult and soon got out for 13 off 13 balls.

ALSO READ: IPL 2018: Rajasthan Royals Loses Yet Another pacer

After that, the Royals’ journey was full of speed breakers in the form of wickets. Alluding to that Rahane said, “I think, first of all, we thought on this wicket, 150-160 would’ve been an ideal total because the ball was doing a bit and the medium pacers had good help on this wicket. But we didn’t get that one partnership. We lost crucial wickets in between.”

ALSO READ: IPL 2018: Match 4 (SRH vs RR) – Stats Review Shikhar Dhawan was star of the match

The tumbling Rajasthan Royals got only as far as 125. A below-par total which was not even competitive. Sunrisers Hyderabad, who boasted few of the finest names in T20 Cricket controlled the chase calmly and with Shikhar Dhawan lashing out they overhauled the target with ease.

ALSO: IPL 2018: WATCH – Kane Williamson’s Blunder During The Toss

When asked about the selection of the overseas players and non-selection of Heinrich Klaasen, Rahane said, “D’Arcy Short did really well in the Big Bash, even for Australia recently, Jos Butler and Stokes we all know how dangerous they are, Ben Laughlin is an experienced bowler in T20 cricket and did well in the Big Bash in Australia,” he said.

“Klaasen is also there… He didn’t get a game but he did well against us in South Africa in T20 cricket. Definitely, Steve Smith is a quality player, but we are not thinking about him right now.”

Rajasthan Royals will take on Delhi Daredevils tomorrow 8 PM at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur.