Ben Stokes has a word with Shane Warne as Ajinkya Rahane looks on. (BCCI)
New Delhi: Rajasthan Royals find themselves in the wrong half of the Indian Premier League (IPL) table and the one big reason for their bad form this season is down to the form of their middle-order batsmen, who have simply failed to fire thus far.
Rajasthan take on high-flying Chennai Super Kings on Friday, knowing a loss for them will see them crash out of the running as far as the knock-out stage is concerned. And if RR want to increase the duration of their tournament, their middle-order need to fire in this do-or-die clash against the two-time champions.
The Royals have one of the lowest scoring middle orders in the league this season and the only team to have scored lower than them are Kings XI Punjab.
Moreover, the RR middle-order batsmen have hit the least number of boundaries (48) boundaries and their strike rate has also been the third lowest in the league this season. Only KXIP (127.22) and SRH (115.96) score their runs at a lower strike rate that the first-ever champions.
And to add to their woes, RR's middle-order batsmen also hold the unenvious record of having the the worst average this term — 18.19.
So far, Rajasthan have used eight players in the middle-order and only two players have managed to score more than 100 runs this season — Ben Stokes (158 runs) and Jos Buttler (120 runs).
The onus will now be on skipper Ajinkya Rahane to pep his team up for the crunch clash against the yellow brigade and as they know that another middle-order collapse here will end their hopes of winning their second IPL title.
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