RR Bowling Coach Heartbroken After Close Defeat vs LSG, Says "It's Been Hard..."

Sairaj Bahutule, the spin bowling coach of Rajasthan Royals (RR), admitted the side could have finished their chase of 181 runs against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) earlier and found their two-run loss from a winning position as hard to take. At the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, RR were perfectly poised to win as they needed 25 runs off 18 balls. But LSG pacer Avesh Khan took three wickets in his last two overs, and defended nine runs off the final over to give his team a memorable win, leaving RR in despair.

It was also the second straight time RR failed to make nine runs in the final over, after being unable to do so against Delhi Capitals (DC) and eventually losing the match via Super Over at the Arun Jaitley Stadium earlier this week.

"To be honest, we've been playing good cricket. It's just that the result has not gone away. In the dugout, there's a lot of calmness with Rahul (Dravid, head coach) being there. Everybody has played enough cricket in that dugout to know that one should not panic and take it as it comes.

"But unfortunately, losing by two runs this game and the previous game with the super over, yes, it's been hard, but that's the way the game goes. T20 is a format where a lot of risk is involved. You make a lot of mistakes and our effort is to minimise those mistakes.

"I think when we had a partnership going, we could have finished it a couple of overs itself. But Avesh bowled that good over again. So, we could have finished it. But again, we are absolutely calm, composed about it and we just look forward for the next game," said Bahutule in the post-match press conference.

RR were also hurt by the fact that pacer Sandeep Sharma conceded four sixes to Abdul Samad in the 27-run last over of LSG's innings.