Rajasthan Royals seemed to have wrapped up the game against KKR when tragedy struck
Not many had given Rajasthan Royals a chance against Kolkata Knight Riders in Sunday’s Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 clash. The defending champions are not even closer to their best in the current edition, but there have been flashes of brilliance.
Chasing 207, they were five wickets down and needed 105 runs from 48 balls. Captain Riyan Parag, who was batting on 45 off 26 balls, then changed the equation in the space of six balls.
The Assam batter demolished Moeen Ali with five consecutive sixes and squeezed 32 runs off the over as the RR suddenly needed 73 off 42 balls.
Parag managed to score six off six legal deliveries when he smoked Varun Chakravarthy with a sensational reverse sweep. The RR captain scored 45 in 13 balls in that period as he raced to the nineties.
Suddenly, RR needed 52 off 30 balls and with Shimron Hetmyer backing Parag well, hope was instilled. Harshit Rana, who was taken to the cleaners until then, got Hetmyer’s wicket while Parag also perished in the 18th over when 34 runs were needed.
Shubham Dubey, who was bought for the very purpose of hitting sixes, made sure that RR remained in the game as he smoked Vaibhav Arora for 6, 4 and 6 in the last over. With just three runs required off the final ball, Shubham dug a yorker to mid-off and scampered for two runs but Jofra Archer was short by a yard to see them lose by just a single run.
This was the fourth last-gasp defeat RR suffered while chasing after choking against Lucknow Super Giants, Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
They managed to invoke the Super Over against DC but failed miserably in that and pressed the self-destruct button against KKR.
A clearly crest-fallen Riyan Parag took full responsibility for the defeat.
“I feel awful to give this interview here, but it is just how the game is. You have to be clinical, the consequences are here,” Parag said in the post-match interview.
“I was just sad, about me getting out. I was planning to stay till the last over. We couldn’t get much in the 16th and 17th, a miscalculation from my side. Should have finished it,” the 23-year-old said.
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KKR were powered by a late onslaught by Andre Russell who scored an unbeaten 57 off 25 balls. Parag felt that they should’ve cut out some runs while bowling, but felt that the blame lies with the batters.
“I think we could have found better options in the first six overs. The spinners did really well. We could have looked to cut down some runs with the ball. But the game was in our hands, we should have finished this,” Parag said.
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