Nitish Rana explains why he was not picked Rajasthan Royals in Super Over
Rajasthan Royals lost the Indian Premier League clash against Delhi Capitals in the Super Over after the game ended in a tie at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday evening. Batting first, Delhi Capitals scored 188/5, thanks to Abishek Porel’s 49 and contributions from KL Rahul, Axar Patel and Tran Stubbs. In response, Rajasthan Royals almost chased down the target with ease thanks to Yashasvi Jaiswal and Nitish Rana who both scored 51 runs each.But the match was pushed into a Super Over as Royals could not score nine runs off the final Mitchell Starc over.
In the Super Over, there was a little bit of a surprise as the Rajasthan Royals opted to name Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer and Yashasvi Jaiswal as their designated batters and left out Rana, who was in red-hot form, scoring his 51 off just 28 balls. The Royals batters could only manage 11 runs off five balls before losing two wickets off two run outs. Delhi scored 12 easily to secure victory.
In the aftermath of the game, Rana was asked why Royals had not picked him to bat in the Super Over, considering his form in the second innings.
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“The management takes the call, not one person. The captain is there along with two other senior players and coaches,” explained Rana before saying: “If Shimron Hetmyer had hit two sixes, then you wouldn’t be asking this question. I will give the same answer. I don’t have any other answer. Whatever decisions we took was absolutely right. Hetmyer is our finisher, that everyone knows. He has delivered in the past.”
Rana added: “One person never takes such calls. Management and support staff is there to discuss such things. If the decision was in our favour then your question would have been different. Cricket is a result-oriented sport. If Sandeep Sharma had bowled well in the Super Over, which he has done in the past. In this situation, he was most likely the bowler for us. We were one big shot less. We were targeting 15 runs in the Super Over.”
