NEWS
Follow UsIt was not Rajasthan Royals' (RR) night on Sunday (May 29) as they suffered a big defeat to hand Gujarat Titans (GT) their first Indian Premier League (IPL) title.
Batting first, RR put on just 130 on the board, which GT chased down with seven wickets and 11 balls to spare. Hardik Pandya led from the front with both bat and ball to hand his side a historic victory.
Speaking of RR, director of cricket has emphasised the need to improve their batting with the possibility of Riyan Parag batting higher up the order to utilise his batting skills to the fullest.
"I think we have got a lot of improvement to do in all areas really," Sangakkara said at the post-match press conference.
"If you really take our batting, we had huge contributions from Jos, contributions from Sanju, and Shimron Hetmyer in the early stages. Riyan and Devdutt [Padikkal] played well in patches, but in terms of overall performance, we need a little bit from the support-role players.
"I think Riyan Parag has got a huge amount of potential, and I think we have got to work him into a higher batting number by the time we come in next session.
"I look forward to grooming him to become more of a kind of an early middle-order player rather than just a death hitter because I think he is so accomplished against spin as well as pace.
"I think overall we have the purple cap, the orange cap, and as a team, we played extremely well. And I thought from the time we started the tournament to now, the guys have put in an amazing effort, so I am very very proud."
Seen as more of a finisher in the side, Parag scored 138 runs in 14 innings at a strike-rate of 138.63 with his best know of 56* off 31 coming against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Pune.
At 59 for 1 in eight overs, RR were well poised to put up a competitive spell, but Hardik then bowled well to break RR's back and restrict them to a below-par total. This was only the fourth toss RR won all season. While debating if they should put GT in, a look at the pitch convinced RR to go the other way.
"We were debating whether to put them in first as well," Sangakkara said.
"By the time we arrived at the ground, we looked at the pitch, it was pretty dry. And we thought it will get slower and maybe offer a little bit of turn for our spinners. So we expected to get about 160-165.
"We were really well set in our batting innings: 70 for 1 at halfway mark. Then Sanju got out and then Hardik [Pandya] came on and bowled some beautiful overs and we let Gujarat back into the game.
"With 130, you need a bit of luck and some quick wickets in the powerplay. Yes, we did get two; unfortunately, we didn't get [Shubman] Gill in that first over and the [asking] run rate never went over seven. So it was always going to be tough."
While praising his bowlers, Sangakkara wanted more from Ravichandran Ashwin in the upcoming season.
"Even for Ash, being a legend in terms of what he has achieved on the cricketing pitch, there will be a lot of improvements and thinking to do, especially with his off-spinner and bowl more of it."
