Rajasthan Royals skipper Riyan Parag was blunt in his assessment after the Royals lost to Delhi Capitals in an IPL 2026 match on Sunday. With the battle for a playoff spot heating up, Parag was critical of his team’s performance and said “if we play like this, we shouldn’t be in the top four”.
Royals had reached more than 150 runs after the 14th over but failed to capitalise on the momentum and were restricted to 193 for 8.
“We were in a pretty good space after 14 overs. Once I got out we didn’t capitalise and should have got around 210. Our bowling, we weren’t up to the mark.” Parag was candid about RR’s poor show leading up to the playoffs.
“If you want to win a trophy, you have to compete in every game. We’re a way better team than we showed in the last 4-5 games. Coming from a break, skillwise, energywise, execution-wise we weren’t there and if we play like this, we shouldn’t be in the top four.
“We had the opportunity, we didn’t take it. If we don’t qualify, it’s our fault, nobody else’s,” he added.
Meanwhile, Delhi Capitals skipper Axar Patel lauded his bowlers, particularly “youngster” Mitchell Starc, for restricting RR under 200.
The win took DC to 12 points from 13 matches and kept their playoff hopes alive. They still have one match left, and if they win it next Sunday, along with a few other results going in their favour, they could still qualify for the playoffs.
“We bowled really well in the middle overs to make a comeback. The last six overs, it was class bowling. The bowling unit refused to give up. Our ‘youngster’ (Starc) did that for us today,” Axar said in the post-match presentation on Sunday.
Axar also said the opening stand of 105 runs between KL Rahul (56) and Abhishek Porel (51) eased pressure on the middle-order batters, as DC chased the target of 194 with four balls to spare.
“It’s obviously special to win at home. One thing has improved that we used to lose wickets in clusters easily, but today we got a good opening stand which helped the other batters.”
Starc said the DC bowling unit fought back really well. “We didn’t bowl too badly in the powerplay but they batted well. But we brought things back later and KL batted fantastically, and to finish at home with a win is always nice. Adjusting as quickly as you can is key because boundaries aren’t too big here.”
Rahul was delighted after going past the 500-run mark in IPL 2026, during his knock of 56 on Sunday.
“This one feels a little more special because I’ve scored 500 runs in previous seasons too, but this year I set out to achieve something else, which was to improve my strike-rate and keep up with the modern demands of T20 cricket.
“So yeah, I’m quite pleased that I could do that. But I don’t think I have completely cracked it as this sport demands more. Very clear message from the coach and the captain that they wanted me to play with a certain strike rate,” he said.
However, Rahul admitted that it would have been better if DC had managed to win more games.
“If we had a few more wins, it would’ve felt even more special. We still have an outside chance, so we’re hoping to win the next game and maybe some other teams can help us out as well,” he added.
