Rajasthan Royals had high hopes for Riyan Parag ahead of the tournament. He had an excellent season last year, where he scored 573 runs for RR. However, the fans haven’t seen the same Parag they saw last season. Finally, he played the best innings of his IPL career and saw one of his old tweets turn into reality.
In the match against KKR, the Royals captain showed a glimpse of last year. When the team needed him the most, he stepped up and smashed 5 sixes in Moeen Ali’s over. Not only that, he scored another six off Varun Chakravarthy’s first ball. Just like that, Parag became the first batter in IPL history to hit 6 sixes in 6 balls. People remembered an old tweet of his. In which he manifested hitting 4 sixes in an over two years ago.
His manifesto took two years to become a reality, but it finally happened. Speaking about the match, KKR decided to bat first, and all their batters looked in great form. While captain Ajinkya Rahane scored 30, young Angkrish Raghuvanshi played a composed innings of 44 runs off just 31 balls. However, the real hero for KKR was Andre Russell, who scored his first half-century of the season. He smashed 57 runs in 25 balls, including 4 fours and 6 sixes.
RR didn’t have an ideal start, with Vaibhav Suryavanshi getting out for just 4 runs. When the inaugural champions were five wickets down for just 71 runs, captain Parag stepped up and brought the game close by hitting 6 sixes in 6 balls. He also scored his first half-century of the season. Unfortunately, finishers Shubham Dubey and Shimron Hetmyer couldn’t get the job done, and RR lost the match by just 1 run.
Riyan Parag took the blame for RR’s one-run loss against KKR in IPL
Many fans believed that if Parag had stayed on the pitch a bit longer, RR would’ve won the match. However, he got out to Vaibhav Arora’s delivery and also missed his maiden IPL century by just 5 runs. The skipper took full responsibility for his team’s loss against the reigning champions.
While talking about the heartbreaking loss in the post-match interview, Parag said he should’ve stayed till the end. He revealed that he was disappointed about getting out at the wrong time. The 23-year-old also mentioned that they didn’t score many runs in the 16th and 17th overs.
Parag stated that the batters should’ve performed better in the powerplay. He gave credit to KKR’s spinners, who took a combined total of 4 wickets. The skipper also mentioned that the bowling department could’ve done a better job. RR has been eliminated from the tournament, having lost 8 out of 11 matches. Many fans trolled them for releasing some of their key players like Yuzvendra Chahal, Jos Buttler, and Trent Boult.
