Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag admitted it wasn’t their day with the bat after they suffered a huge loss of 100 runs against Mumbai Indians at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium, Jaipur on Thursday. Chasing a par score of 218 runs for the win, RR was bundled our for a paltry score of 117 runs as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
That their lead pacer Jofra Archer top scored with 30 runs, tells us their sad story with the bat. With this loss, RR also joined CSK to be eliminated from the playoffs race in IPL 2025.
Parag reckons 190 would have been an ideal score to chase but feels Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav took the game away from them as both batters smashed 23-ball 48 each.
MI was given a solid start as their openers Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton added 116 runs off 71 balls to lay down a perfect platform for the team.
Riyan Parag said after the loss while talking to the official broadcasters, “We have to give credit to the way MI played. The way they batted, took the game a little deep, kept the 10 runs per over consistency and accelerated in the end. As far as our batting is concerned it wasn’t our day. 190-200 would have been ideal (to chase), but then Hardik and Surya bhai at the end really switched it up, we could have done a few things better but it is how it is.”
Parag added they need to convert their starts and the middle order must take the onus on their shoulders to deliver the goods for the team.
He concluded, “We have been getting good starts but it is up to the middle order – myself, Dhruv, for us to step up when we lose wickets in the powerplay, but we still back ourselves, if another situation (like today) comes up then we will be up for it. (how has the season gone) We have done a lot of things right, lot of things wrong, we want to focus on the things we have done right, lot of mistakes, lot of small errors, focus on how to not make them and we have had a few close matches, if we get an opportunity like the first 10 games in the next 3 then hopefully we can do it better.”
Rajasthan Royals will next take on Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Sunday.
