Riyan Parag was at the receiving end of boos from a section of the crowd in Ahmedabad, but he also copped a sly comment from Harsha Bhogle on air.
Rajasthan Royals (RR) young gun Riyan Parag was at the receiving end of booing from a jam-packed Ahmedabad stadium in the IPL 2022 Qualifier 2 on Friday (May 27).
The uncapped Indian cricketer from Assam had the gigantic crowd going after him after he shelved a catching opportunity inside the 30-yard cycle against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
With Qualifier 2 being a virtual semi-final, every chance carries great weightage and means a lot to fans of either team. Parag realised it at his expense after the crowd booed loudly against him following a dropped catch.
What ruffled the crowd the wrong way was the costly nature of the drop since it involved RCB’s previous game’s centurion Rajat Patidar. Patidar cut the ball straight at the point region where Riyan Parag failed to make a clean gather.
The incident is from the final over of the field restriction phase. Hoping to continue his rich vein of form, Patidar went on to slice a short ball from RR speedster Prasidh Krishna to the off-side. While the ball was sailing off his willow, Patidar should still have been out had the point fielder taken the straightforward catch.
Riyan Parag, however, made an unsuccessful gag at the ball and let it go off his hands after a quick jump. Letting go relatively easy chance, Parag had no option but to keep his head down without looking at the rest of the RR fielding unit and bowler Prasidh and resume his original position.
Watch: Virat Kohli generously denies run after ball ricochets off his boot
The young cricketer would’ve been distraught in the moment and to add to his misery, a section of the full-packed crowd in Ahmedabad decided to rub salt into his wounds by booing excessively against him.
Harsha Bhogle, on air, took a dig at Riyan Parag. When someone in the crowd caught a ball for a six, he took a dig at Parag by stating that the person should be fielding at point (where Parag was positioned when he dropped the catch).
— Prasidhkkk11 (@prasidhkkk11) May 27, 2022
Fans on social media were equally brutal in their response against Riyan Parag, whose on-field antics have often attracted criticism, even though the cricketer has never really indulged in sledging with a fellow cricketer or behaved inappropriately.
Here is how some of them reacted:
@ParagRiyan drops an easy catch at point@bhogleharsha savage commentary..Person in audience takes a catch
Harsha : he has caught it *put him at point* 😂😂😂😂#riyanparag #IPL #TATAIPL2022 #RCBvRR— ParsiBawaa (@ParsiBawaa) May 27, 2022
Wt the hell happening to this rr management giving too many chances this pan parag 🤡
— Hit Man_45 (@elegant_45) May 27, 2022
Riyan parag dropped the match 😂😂😂
— . (@naanu_sheeku) May 27, 2022
Said it! Karma it’s back #riyanparag https://t.co/s0X32OMiYM
— Harry✈🌎 (@Srihari_08) May 27, 2022
Mo Kaif and Jatin Sapru Tryimg Hard To prove that Riyan Parag Dropped Catch Because of Ring Of Fire and Raina Told it looked like he seem to have took it lightly thus he wasn’t even in position, after that Jatin and Kaif argued that catch could have been lost in croud.🤡 #RCBvsRR
— Lord🇮🇳 (@Lordd_14) May 27, 2022
Notably, though, Parag had a moment of brief anger over his teammate Devdutt Padikkal in RR’s previous game when he covered the ball slowly on the outfield. Being the great leveller as it is, cricket got back on Parag, who must’ve had his first instance facing boos from the stands. It’s worth noting, though, that Riyan Parag has taken the most catches in IPL 2022.
