At a glance:
- Rajasthan Royals suffered a major blow to their IPL playoff hopes after losing to Delhi Capitals on May 17.
- Captain Riyan Parag slammed RR’s performance as “very poor” and said they do not deserve a top-four spot if they continue playing like this.
- Rajasthan can still reach a maximum of 16 points, but qualification may depend on net run rate.
After losing to the Delhi Capitals on Sunday, May 17, the Rajasthan Royals harmed their hopes of making the Indian Premier League playoffs. The match, which was hanging by a thread at the sixteenth over of the second innings, was lost by Rajasthan due to several on-field errors. After the team’s poor fielding allowed runs to escape, captain Riyan Parag lost his temper on the field.
During the post-match interview, the RR captain was clearly irritated and criticized the team’s entire performance. Described as “extremely poor,” Rajasthan’s performance Parag claimed that if the squad kept up their current performance, they didn’t deserve to be in the running for a top-four finish.
“Very poor. I feel if you want to win a trophy, you have to be better than what we were today. Extremely disappointed. We are a much better team than what we have shown in the last four or five games. If we keep playing like that, we shouldn’t be in contention for the top four,” Riyan Parag said.
Rajasthan Royals blow perfect start after fielding errors
The Rajasthan Royals were cruising at 160/2 after 14 overs on Sunday after getting off to a great start. But following the Delhi Capitals’ stunning comeback spearheaded by Mitchell Starc, Lungi Ngidi, Axar Patel, and Madhav Tiwari, everything swiftly collapsed.
After having total control early in the game, RR collapsed significantly in the last part of the innings. With 100 runs added in only 10 overs by Abishek Porel and KL Rahul, the Delhi Capitals were at ease in the chase. This resulted from a horrible error made by Yash Raj Punja in the first over of the second innings when he dropped a sitter of KL Rahul in the covers. But Rajasthan put up a fierce fight, making key breakthroughs that kept them in the match till the sixteenth over.
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RR Captain defends Ferreira gamble after painful defeat
Poor fielding ultimately caused the game to slip away, and head coach Kumar Sangakkara was clearly upset on the bench. In the eighteenth over, Parag’s choice to give the ball to Donovan Ferreira, a part-time player, also backfired. When Ferreira let up 16 runs in the over against Axar Patel, Delhi gained the upper hand.
“We were in a pretty good space after 14 overs. After I got out, we didn’t capitalize. In the bowling, we weren’t there. We didn’t execute. “Ferreira wasn’t a gamble. On TV, it looks like a gamble, but it wasn’t. With two left-handed batters in the middle, I tried to bowl him instead of Shanaka,” Parag explained after the game.
With two league games remaining, Rajasthan may finish with a maximum of 16 points. Qualification, however, could depend on net run rate, since RR presently behind the other top five teams with an NRR of +0.027. They will play their final two league stage games against Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants.
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