Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag claimed that a number of causes contributed to his team’s first IPL loss of the year, including his often explosive hitters’ incapacity to gauge the speed of deliveries against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Rajasthan’s dynamic top order, which includes Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, and Dhruv Jurel, had a rare collective failure after an unimpressive performance with the ball as SRH crushed the Royals by 57 runs in Hyderabad on Monday.
“I think it was a mix of everything. I felt we were a little surprised by what the pace of the ball was when it left the hand and how it came off the wicket,” PTI quoted Parag as saying at the post-match press conference.
“…I think Vaibhav expected it a little quicker, came a little stickier. Same for Dhruv, nipped back in. Jaiswal, he hits that 9 out of 10 times and that stopped. I got a really full ball, I couldn’t hit that. I won’t say we were unlucky, but then it was a mix of a lot of variables that came into play, hence we couldn’t connect those shots,” he added.
Despite possessing the necessary quality, Parag, who has assumed the RR captaincy this season, believed that the bowlers too performed poorly.
“Initially, I think we were okay, but then in the middle overs, they were 30 runs over for sure. I think we could have found better options, used the wicket a little bit more, used more slower balls, maybe slower bouncers, wide yorkers or whatever it is. But I think just the execution lacked a bit, nothing about the quality of our bowlers. I don’t doubt that at any time,” he added.
Teenage tornado Sooryavanshi received a lot of appreciation from Parag, who encouraged the young cricketer to succeed.
“In 10 years’ time, he’s going to be my age, so I don’t know how to look that far up ahead, but as far as now is concerned, I hope he is in a really good mental state. (He should) just win more games, bat as flamboyantly as he has been doing throughout the four or five games, whatever it is, and win us a title and hopefully he plays for India very soon.”
After making his IPL debut the previous year, Sooryavanshi has participated in 12 league games over the course of two seasons.
“I feel one thing you gain every time you step onto a cricket field is experience and regardless of his age, he might be 15 years old, but he has gained a lot of experience playing last year.
“From the sidelines, you do gain a little bit of experience, you do understand how the game works, how IPL works, but then him having played seven games and then keeping that momentum, playing the World Cup (Under-19), Asia Cups (age group) and he’s scored runs everywhere he’s gone.
“I think he has earned a lot of experience from those games, being in match situations, winning games, scoring a lot of runs, big runs, like daddy hundreds.”
