"I blame myself": Riyan Parag takes fall for RR's heartbreaking two-run defeat

Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], April 20 (ANI): Rajasthan Royals stand-in captain Riyan Parag couldn't put his finger on what exactly went wrong for his side, considering they were in the game till the "18th-19th over". He just felt that a couple of balls cost them the game against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and blamed himself for their fourth consecutive defeat in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025.
Rajasthan agonisingly fell to a heart-wrenching defeat in a fixture they thoroughly dominated from the beginning. Despite Rajasthan's authoritative nature, the game went right down the wire as the hosts stood just nine runs shy of successfully completing their pursuit of the 181-run target.
Lucknow skipper Rishabh Pant trusted experienced speedster Avesh Khan and handed him the responsibility of ensuring their comeback story ended on a fairytale note. Avesh, with his searing yorkers, exposed Rajasthan's Achilles heel and knocked them off the perch by successfully defending nine runs in the final over to ensure LSG's return to winning ways.
While Pant bore a cheeky smile on his face as Lucknow managed to get out of jail by the barest of margins, Parag wondered what went wrong for them and took the blame on himself, saying he should have finished the game himself in the penultimate over.
"Feeling a little hard to process the emotions, not sure what we did wrong. We were in the game till the 18th or 19th over. I probably should have finished it in the 19th over. I blame myself. We just have to put one game together collectively for 40 overs; only then can we win. We did really well (with the ball), the last over was unfortunate, thought that we would stop them for 165-170," Parag said after the match.
After cruising on their home strip during the chase, Rajasthan was 25 runs away from breaking their losing streak and finding some winning momentum. Parag and Yashasvi Jaiswal, two set batters, stood on the crease with the mantle of steering the Royals to victory.
While many expected it to be a walk in the park, Avesh made things interesting in the 18th over by removing both set batters in the same over. Rajasthan's innings derailed and never found the way to track as they succumbed to a two-run defeat.
Apart from Avesh's dazzling display, Rajasthan's fate changed in the final over, bowled by Sandeep Sharma in the first innings. Abdul Samad flaunted his power-hitting muscle and dispatched the ball for a staggering four towering maximums to lift Lucknow to 180/5.
"Sandy (Sandeep Sharma) bhai is trusted. He's only had one bad game. Samad batted really well. We should've chased that down. Today was perfect; there were no complaints about the wicket. We were right in it, just a few balls can cost you an IPL game," he concluded. (ANI)