IPL 2020: Coach Andrew McDonald says inconsistency cost Rajasthan Royals this season

Dubai, November 2: Rajasthan Royals coach Andrew McDonald feels that being inconsistent in the tournament is the main reason that the side has failed to qualify for the IPL 2020 play-off.

Royals opened the campaign with two big wins, but only managed two more back-to-back wins and ended the season with a defeat to fellow play-off aspirants Kolkata Knight Riders.

After the match on Sunday (November 1), McDonald said that the Steve Smith-led side displayed a below-par performance in a much-needed game and lost many games which they could have won.

"Some of the cricket we played throughout the tournament was inconsistent. There were a couple where we could have clearly won. Looking back at the RCB game, AB took that game away. Against Delhi also, we weren't able to chase it down," McDonald said in the post-match press conference.

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"We can't really blame the conditions or the venues, we played inconsistent cricket. We won two games in a row and then a few inconsistencies crept in and we couldn't complete the job today," McDonald added.

Fresh off the back of two high scoring run chases, Royals faltered on their third attempt. Chasing 192, Royals scored 19 runs off the first over, but Robin Uthappa's wicket in the first over started a downfall, reducing them to 37/5 and they fell short by 60 runs from the target.

McDonald said the side never got going and Cummins' spell had put them on the backfoot at the start of the game from which they weren't able to come back.

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"It was below-par performance and below what we'd expect. In the last couple of games, we've chased down big totals and today we never really got rolling. To lose five wickets in the powerplay generally puts you on the backfoot. We never really gave ourselves a chance to build a foundation and chase down the total," said McDonald.

"Pat Cummins's first over was interesting - 19 runs with a wicket. And then he got another couple of wickets on the back of that. We can't pinpoint an exact reason. We thought we had the best of conditions in terms of the dew. We thought we gave ourselves a good start and it was a total we should have chased," he added.