Batsman Robin Uthappa admitted the Rajasthan Royals were relatively impatient during Wednesday's unsuccessful pursuit of a 175-run target against the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2020 Indian Premier League.
Rajasthan were limited to 137 for nine, after Kolkata had climbed to a final total of 174 for six at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
The Royals' total would have been significantly lower, too, had burgeoning all-rounder Tom Curran not struck an unbeaten half-century down the order.
“We have played practice matches on bigger grounds as well. So, it's just a matter of adjusting to the pace of the wicket. As we play more games here, we'll get better at it. We've got a good sense of how this wicket's going play,” said Uthappa.
“It's pretty similar to our practice wickets. We are looking forward to the next games as well. Our performance will only climb from hereon. In hindsight, you feel you could have taken a little more time. We got the sense that the wicket changed a little bit.
“Post the first innings, I thought that the wicket began stopping a little bit. Obviously, it was a used wicket. I think towards the end, the wicket started getting a little tired. In hindsight, we felt, we could have taken a little bit of time to get adjusted. And then take the attack to the bowlers.”
Uthappa's IPL Record
The right-handed Uthappa is among the top 10 run-scorer in the history of the Indian Premier League. He has also represented the Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians, Pune Warriors and Royal Challengers Bangalore. This IPL season, however, he has managed a mere 16 runs in three innings.
“We play a certain brand of cricket and we continued to play that as a batting line-up. Obviously, there have been learnings from this game and those learnings will be taken into our stride and applied in the games to come,” he added.
The Royals won the inaugural IPL in 2008. They are currently without England all-rounder Ben Stokes, who was named in the squad but might not play in the tournament at all. He is with his ill father in New Zealand.
