NEW DELHI: After a long, winding two months, the league phase of the IPL is entering its final week. With only two of the 10 sides out of playoff reckoning, the rest are set for a desperate scramble to seal the topfour spots by next Sunday.One of the teams that can still dictate its own destiny is Rajasthan Royals. Placed fifth in the points table with 12 points from 11 games, the Royals can seal a last-four berth with victories in their three remaining matches. The blip, however, is that the Royals are entering the final stretch on the back of two consecutive defeats. One of them came against Delhi Capitals, the very opponents they face at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday.“We’ve been kind of off colour in a couple of games and then the opposition teams played really well. You just got to pull one back and then try and get the fire in your, that mindset of winning. If we win all three, we don’t have to wait for anyone,” said Kumar Sangakkara, Royals’ director of cricket, on match eve.Topmost among the worries for the Royals team management is their lack of bowling discipline. They have conceded more than 200 runs in each of their last four games, winning only one of them. To add to their miseries, the Royals have conceded 134 extras this season, the most by any team, including the 19 they yielded in their 77-run defeat to Gujarat Titans in their last game.The chief culprit in that game was their strike bowler Jofra Archer, who bowled an 11-ball opening over, including four wides and a no-ball, and has been off the boil in the last three games. A week’s break would have given the team management enough time to relook at their bowling combination.They might be mulling the possibility of bringing back left-arm seamer Nandre Burger, who was left out for the last game, and will also be keen to accommodate leggie Ravi Bishnoi in the playing XI on a tacky Kotla track.The Royals’ batting has depended heavily on the starts provided by teen sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal. The onus will be on the rest of the batters, led by Dhruv Jurel, to get their act together. Riyan Parag is expected to return to lead the side after missing the last game with a sore hamstring.Though the Capitals are not mathematically out of the playoff race, the Axar Patel-led side would admit that they need a minor miracle to finish in the top four. The all-round show of young Madhav Tiwari helped them dent Punjab Kings’ playoff hopes in their previous game and the Capitals will hope they can play party poopers against Royals as well.
