Rajasthan Royals produced another below-par performance as they went down against defending champions Mumbai Indians. Chasing 194 runs, Rajasthan managed only 136 runs, falling short by 57 runs. Speaking at the end of the game, Steve Smith rued poor batting effort behind their poor run in the last couple of games.

Rajasthan Royals had no way to get themselves out of this hole after Mumbai posted a massive total unless Steve Smith can bat through the innings. Jos Buttler can win it on his day, and Rajasthan’s hopes did stay alive until he was in today, but eventually, there was far too much for him to do alone.

The batting line-up lacks fire beyond the No. 4 batsman and it didn’t help that they were up against Boult and Bumrah breathing. Steve Smith & Co will hope Ben Stokes to be available for the next game and revive their poor run in IPL 2020.

The top-order failed to put runs on the board – Steve Smith

Earlier in the day, Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock got them off to a flier. But the 19-year-old debutant Kartik Tyagi soon drew the first blood as de Kock was dismissed inside the Powerplay. However, the ever-consistent Suryakumar Yadav kept going. Despite scoring tons and tons of runs in the domestic season and IPL, Suryakumar never manages to impress the national selectors.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians lost two wickets off two balls and promoted Krunal Pandya up the order to tackle the two leg-spinners in action. Rohit Sharma looked out of shape while playing the shot while Ishant Kishan gave away wickets without scoring a run.

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Speaking at the end of the game, Steve Smith said lack of application from the batsmen resulted in consecutive defeats. Apart from Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer, others have struggled to get going from the time they started playing outside Sharjah.

“I think losing wickets early doesn’t help, we haven’t been able to get off to a good start in the last three games. Outside of Jos and Archer at the end, we have a bit of work to do on our batting,” Steve Smith said.

Steve Smith also added that there is no need to panic as of now. He also stressed the importance of implementing the plans and doing the right things to return to winning ways.

“I don’t think we need to panic too much, it is just about implementing our plans and playing some good cricket for longer. We haven’t been able to do that in the last three games and we have to turn it around quickly. Hopefully get a bit of momentum,” Smith added.