"Always been a fan of cricket" - Former England manager Gareth Southgate In Attendance at IPL
Southgate spotted at Sawai Mansingh Stadium
Gareth Southgate, former England national football team coach, who led the Three Lions to the European Championship final last year, was spotted at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium for the clash between the Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians just before the league was halted a week ago.
The Royals' next match comes on Sunday when they take on the Kings, and our Rajasthan Royals vs Punjab Kings prediction is already online, so be sure to check out how our experts think this match will pan out, especially for Punjab, who are in the midst of the Playoff qualification battle.
The 54-year-old football manager was seen sporting the Royals’ special pink jersey, which was made to promote women’s initiatives launched by the Royal Rajasthan Foundation to commemorate International Women’s Day.
Rajasthan opted to bowl first after winning the toss, but they struggled to make an impact, with Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickleton both posting half-centuries and propelling their side to a three-digit opening partnership en route to a total of 217/2.
In response, the Royals, who are enduring a very poor season, were completely obliterated, managing a mere 117 before being bowled out in the 17th over, with only one of their batsman managing a score of over 20.
During the match, the IPL’s social media team caught up with Southgate for an interview. He said:
"When I was a young kid, I used to watch Test matches all day long. I mean, I am going back to the era of Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and players like that and then over the years, I got to know a lot of the players when I was playing for England, and I knew a lot of the England team."
However, this was not the only match that the former England boss attended, as he also followed RR to Eden Gardens, where they came up agonisingly short chasing the Kolkata Knight Riders' total of 207, falling short by just one run.
Royals call up South African batting prodigy
While the Rajasthan Royals have endured a very poor IPL season and are already out of contention for the Playoffs, the team is still aiming to end the competition strongly and have called up South African teenage prodigy Lhuan-dre Pretorius for their remaining matches.
The 19-year-old burst onto the scene at the SA20 earlier this year with a score of 97 runs on debut for the Paarl Royals and ended the tournament as the highest run-scorer with 397 runs and a stunning 166.81 strike rate.
Asked about his call-up, Pretorius said: “It’s a real dream come true. I’m just trying to be like a sponge and soaking everything in.”
Pretorius will remain with Rajasthan for their final two games of the competition against the Punjab Kings and Chennai Super Kings before joining up with the South Africa ‘A’ team for their tour to the West Indies early next month.
