Ahmedabad: Gujarat Titans batting coach Matthew Hayden termed the defeat to Rajasthan Royals “heartbreaking” after a dramatic middle-order collapse, with Ravi Bishnoi triggering a turnaround in the chase of 211.
In the final few overs, Rashid Khan (24), who stepped in to lead the side after skipper Shubman Gill missed the game due to a muscle spasm, and Kagiso Rabada (23) almost pulled off a run chase with their cameos; however, it wasn’t enough as GT fell short by just six runs.
“I think we lost four for ten in that period. The game was absolutely in the bag. Washi Sundar had a pretty big decision to make at that point, around if you’re going to attack someone like Bishnoi, who was on a roll, especially after the dismissal. That was maybe a choice that he can look at and will look at as well in terms of just trying to be a little bit more cohesive in our run chases, because it has to be said there wasn’t a lot that went wrong in those first 12 overs. There was plenty of great stuff,” Hayden said at the press conference after the game.
“The run-out was something that, again, was a decision which Shahrukh and Rashid had to make at the time. I haven’t broken down that play because, as a coach, you tend to kind of look at the ball, but I’ll be interested also to see the approach when we get back to the vision of how that run was executed. It certainly looked from the sideline that Jaddu bumped the ball quite a long way away from him and to regather, as we know, he’s so quick and he’s so good at getting and releasing the ball,” he added.
“But there’s two wickets straightaway that would have been the difference. Again, we’re talking about six runs. So those little things in T20 cricket, when you’re chasing down a big total, which we were, they become vital in the decision-making process of a batting unit.”
Earlier, bowling first, Rabada picked up two wickets, while Mohammed Siraj, Ashok Sharma, Prasidh Krishna and Rashid chipped in with one scalp each to restrict the Rajasthan Royals to 210/6.
Hayden, however, admitted that key bowlers like Mohammed Siraj, Rabada, and Rashid were a little bit off their rhythm. “I felt like a lot of our bowlers were just a little bit off their rhythm and their line in particular. KG Rabada’s figures, I think, were a bit more expensive than perhaps what he bowled today. I thought he was actually pretty good, and the same with Rashid.
“Siraj had an off day, simple as that. When we reviewed his pitch map, he was a little bit too short and a little bit too wide, and that’s just a great bowler just having an off day. Whereas I thought Rashid actually could have had a much better day. It could have been a couple more wickets in the wicket column, and so too with KG Rabada as well.
“If anything, KG bowled a little bit of a leg-stumpy line, back of a length. And short-of-a-length, good-length balls tended to be a fraction wide of the off stump. But we’re splitting hairs in many ways. Batters have the intent now to score quickly,” he said.
The loss was GT’s second game in a row this season, joining Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings to have that record.
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Caption: Gujarat Titans’ players celebrate the wicket of Rajasthan Royals’ Riyan Parag during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 match between Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals in Ahmedabad on Saturday, April 04, 2026. (Photo: IANS)
–IANS
