Rajasthan Royals can still qualify for playoffs: Johan Botha

Rajasthan Royals all-rounder Johan Botha believes that his team still has a good chance of making it to the elimination round of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).

Rajasthan’s chances for the playoffs became slim when they suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Thursday.

The Royals were dominant during most part of the game, but the Super Kings snatched the glory with the help of a late surge. Batting first, the Jaipur side posted a challenging total of 126 runs on the board.

In reply, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and men failed to take a good start and kept losing wickets regularly. However, they held their nerves and took the game away from the home side following a wonderful show in the final few overs.

After a four-wicket loss, the Royals have slipped down to the sixth place on the points table. In order to fancy their chances for the next round, the Rahul Dravid-led side will have to win all remaining three matches comprehensively.

Botha is not ready to lose hope, saying that the side still can bounce back and qualify for the next round.

"It was a bad loss against Chennai but we can still make it to the playoffs if we win the three remaining matches. The fact that we have to play two against struggling Pune Warriors India and Deccan Chargers and the last against Mumbai Indians gives a little
chance," said Botha.

"We were right there most of the time but the guys [S Anirudh and Albie Morkel] played a couple of good shots and took the game away from us. It was disappointing but we still hope to reach the play-offs," he added.

The contest started a bit late due to heavy showers before the game. When Botha asked whether the rain had any effect on the result, the South African stated:

"It is always a disadvantage for the batting side if the game stops due to rain but we put in a good effort to reach around 130 but would have loved a few more runs. Despite this it was a close game and there are no excuses."

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on May 11 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry