Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Riyan Parag analyzed his team’s close loss against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and placed the blame on not being intentful against the spinners. They were chasing a small target, and they still required 18 runs off the last two overs. But Josh Hazlewood changed the script by conceding just one run and taking out both a nicely-set Dhruv Jurel and Jofra Archer in consecutive deliveries. Yash Dayal then defended 16 runs in the last over without success, giving RCB an 11-run victory in Bengaluru. This is the third consecutive match where RR have failed in close run chases. In their last matches against Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants, they needed nine runs off the last over but could not cross the line either time.
After the match, Rajasthan Royals interim skipper Riyan Parag reflected on the defeat and mentioned one mistake that costed them the match.
“Didn’t Show Enough Intent Towards Spinners”
“I think we did really well with the ball,” Parag said after the game. “I thought it was probably like a 210 to 220 wicket. We held them back really well. With our batting halfway through our innings, I thought we were in the driver’s seat. We had probably eight and a half runs per over [needed] in the last 10-11 overs. I think we’ve got ourselves to blame, we didn’t show enough intent towards the spinners. We just could you have executed our batting a little bit better.”
“One Slight Mistake, You’re Gonna Pay For It”
“The support staff has given us a lot of freedom. The onus is on the players and ourselves that we need to go ahead and show that freedom and show performances with intent and play freely. It’s a tournament where if you make one slight mistake, you’re gonna pay for it. And that’s what happened today.”
