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After his side's 36-run loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Qualifier 2 match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Rajasthan Royals (RR) Director of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara said they had a great season in the tournament.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Sangakkara said they started on a good note but lost a few close games in the second half of the tournament. "I think it was a great season for us. We started really well and then we lost a close game to SRH in Hyderabad and [in] Delhi also we put ourselves in winning positions," Sangakkara said. He showered praise on his players and said they played "phenomenal" cricket throughout the tournament. "Sometimes you have streaks, RCB lost almost every game at the start and then caught up. That's how T20 goes. All we can do is put ourselves in positions of playoffs and vying for finals which we did. I think all the guys throughout the season played really phenomenal cricket. There was a little bit of fatigue of course at the back end but it doesn't really matter when you're in games like this, you gotta just turn up and perform," he added. Recapping the match, Rajasthan Royals won the toss and decided to field first. Heinrich Klaasen (50 runs from 34 balls, 4 sixes) and Rahul Tripathi (37 runs from 15 balls, 5 fours and 2 sixes) were the standout batters in the first inning and played a knock which helped the Sunrisers put 175/9 on the scoreboard. Travis Head (34 runs from 28 balls, 3 fours and 1 six) also played a crucial role opening for the Hyderabad-based franchise. Trent Boult and Avesh Khan led the Rajasthan bowling attack after the pacers picked up three wickets each in their respective spells. During the run chase, Yashasvi Jaiswal (42 runs from 21 balls, 4 fours and 3 sixes) and Dhruv Jurel (56 runs from 35 balls, 7 fours and 2 sixes) tried their best but failed to chase the target. The Royals stumbled to a 36-run defeat after failing to add runs against the SRH bowlers. Shahbaz Ahmed led the SRH bowling attack picking up 3 wickets in his four-over spell, while Abhishek Sharma bagged two wickets in his four-over spell. Sunrisers will face Kolkata Knight Riders in the final of the ongoing edition at Chepauk on Sunday. (ANI)
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