Rajasthan Royals stand-in captain Riyan Parag admitted that they didn’t show enough intent with the bat against the spinners and it led to their downfall against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Thursday. The inaugural champions were in the driver’s seat as they needed 18 runs off the last 12 balls but suffered a 11-run loss as they once again could not close out the game.
Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma were able to choke the visitors in the middle overs, a phenomenon rarely seen at the Chinnaswamy. While Pandya returned with figures of 2-31 in his quota of four overs, Sharma conceded the same number of runs but without any wicket to show against his name.
Josh Hazlewood was brilliant and extracted extra bounce to breathe down the neck of the visiting batters. The Australian returned with impressive figures of 4-33 and conceded only one run in the penultimate over of the innings. Hazlewood accounted for Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel and Jofra Archer.
Riyan Parag said after the loss, “We did really well with the ball. I thought it was a 210-215 wicket, we held them back really well. Halfway through our innings we were in the driver’s seat. We’ve got ourselves to blame. Didn’t show enough intent against spinners.”
Speaking on the mental part in the run-chase, “It does play a part but support staff has given us a lot of freedom and the onus is on us to go ahead and show that freedom and play freely. It’s a tournament where if you make a slight mistake, you’ll pay for it.”
Speaking on the conversations in the dressing room, “We speak a lot as groups. We try to be very honest with our conversations about how everyone was feeling in different situations. We’ve spoken about situations like this, just couldn’t execute it tonight. We’ve got to play for pride now. There are a lot of fans who support us. There are a lot of people who work really hard for us to come out here and play in a tournament like this. Have got to do it for them. Have to be very grateful and honoured to play this game and play for this franchise and we’ve got to show it next time we play.”
Rajasthan Royals have managed only two wins in nine games in the ongoing IPL 2025, and their season is all but over.
RR will next take on Gujarat Titans at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur on Monday.
