Riyan Parag’s knock and Yuzvendra Chahal and Nandre Burger’s top bowling performance helped Rajasthan Royals beat Delhi Capitals by 12 runs in their IPL 2024 match on Thursday.
Chasing 186, DC lost some wickets but the partnership between David Warner and Rishabh Pant kept them in the game. However, RR kept on scalping wickets and maintained their dominance.
In the end, RR restricted DC at 173/5 and won the match by 12 runs. For DC, David Warner scored 49 while Tristan Stubbs scored 43 runs. For RR, Nandre Burger and Yuzvendra Chahal scalped two wickets each. Apart from them, Avesh Khan also scalped one wicket.
After being the perpetual laughing stock of the league year after year, Riyan Parag’s redemption in 2024 has been no less than a fairytale which seemed to crescendo on Thursday. After saving the team from deep trouble on a difficult deck, the youngster unleashed beast mode to end the innings.
Rajasthan Royals staged a remarkable recovery from 33/3 in the eighth over to put up a daunting total of 185/5 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium after being asked to bat first by Delhi Capitals on a lush green deck. The turnaround in fortunes was largely due to a stellar Riyan Parag that featured seven boundaries and six maximums.
After repetitive failures in the past seasons, the Assamese repaid the team management’s faith by registering a career-high T20 score of 84 from just 45 deliveries. The 22-year-old was going run-a-ball till he was on 26 before unleashing some monstrous hits, the brunt of which was borne by Anrich Nortje in the final over.
The onslaught began with some fortune for Parag after a thick edge saw Nortje’s opening yorker sail between the keeper and short third man for four.
The next shot was pure skill though as he climbed onto a bumper to send it racing to the ropes before dispatching a slot delivery into the crowd with disdain.
Nortje responded by going back to the wide yorker, only to end up with a repeat of the first delivery, but Parag had saved the best for the very end.
Nortje banged a 144 kph bouncer into the deck but not only did the batter remain uncluttered but pulled it across his body with ridiculous ease. The Kookaburra sailed high into the night sky and cleared midwicket by a mile, leaving Parag’s batting partner Shimron Hetmyer in shock as he congratulated the youngster.