Gujarat Titans Batting Coach Matthew Hayden Flags Decision-Making Failures vs RR

Gujarat Titans batting coach Matthew Hayden reflected on his side’s narrow six-run defeat to Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2026, singling out two dismissals as the turning points in a failed chase of 211.

Gujarat Titans lost their second straight IPL 2026 game, falling 6 runs short against Rajasthan Royals at home on Saturday. Batting coach Matthew Hayden pointed to two critical moments that took the match away from his side.

GT looked comfortable at 107 for 1 in the 11th over while chasing 211. Sai Sudharsan top-scored with 73 off 44 balls. Kumar Kushagra contributed 18 off 14 at the top. The pair put on 78 for the opening wicket. Then the middle order collapsed, and GT finished on 161 for 7.

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Washington Sundar’s dismissal off Ravi Bishnoi changed the game’s momentum. Shah Rukh Khan’s run-out moments later made things worse. Hayden credited Ravindra Jadeja’s sharp fielding as a decisive factor in that dismissal.

“Washy Sundar, he had a pretty big decision to make at that point around if you’re going to attack someone like Bishnoi, who was on a roll. That was maybe a choice that he can look at and will look at as well in terms of just trying to be a little bit more cohesive in our run chases, because it has to be said there wasn’t a lot that went wrong in that first 12 overs,” Hayden said at the post-match press conference.

“The run out (of Shahrukh Khan) was something that, again, was a decision which Shahrukh and Rashid had to make at the time. I haven’t broken down that play because as a coach you tend to kind of look at the ball, but I’ll be interested also to see the approach when we get back to vision of how that run was executed. It certainly looked at from the sideline that Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja, at the extra-cover boundary) bumped the ball quite a long way away from him and to regather, as we know, he’s so quick and he’s so good at getting and releasing the ball,” he continued.

“But there’s two wickets straightaway that would have been the difference. Again, we’re talking about six runs. So those little things in T20 cricket, when you’re chasing down a big total, which we were, they become vital in the decision-making process of a batting unit,” Hayden concluded.

GT now joins CSK and KKR with 2 losses from 2 games. They face unbeaten Delhi Capitals away on Wednesday, April 8th, desperate for their first win.