RR chased down the formidable target of 223 with four balls to spare.
Chasing a formidable target of 223, RR reached home with four deliveries to spare, driven by an unbeaten 52 off 26 balls from Donovan Ferreira and 12-ball 31* from Shubham Dubey. Earlier, the opening duo of Yashasvi Jaiswal (51 off 27) and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (43 off 16) laid the foundation with quickfire knocks.
Speaking during the post-match presentation, RR skipper Riyan Parag emphasized treating high-stake fixtures as just another game and focusing on reviewing mistakes.
"I think as a team, what we've discussed right before the start of the tournament, I feel we treat this as a game. I know everything around it, it has a lot of value, but for us, I think it's again, when we lost last game, it was about the mistakes, the errors, what we did well. Same thing today. I thought we could have restricted them for a little lower, but then the batters picked up the slack. But yeah, next game, I feel moving forward, we discuss about this, review it, and then move forward," Parag said.
Parag acknowledged that while they played at nearly 100%, the aspiration is always to play a "perfect" 40 overs of cricket, noting small areas for improvement in the middle overs.
“Yeah, 100%. I feel we could have bowled a few overs better here and there and batted a few overs better in the middle, but around, I'd say around 35 overs, but you're never going to get 40 overs, but then that aspiration has always to be that you've gonna play 40 overs of good cricket,” he added.
Parag dismissed external noise about the middle order, stating the team has full trust in all players, with different parts of the order covering when others don't perform.
“The concerns were apart from us, was from everyone else. Everyone watching, everyone commentating. That was their concerns, not our concerns. We trust our players and their abilities a lot. When the middle-order doesn't fire, the openers, number three and the lower order have to like pick it up. When the middle-order fires and someone from the top doesn't get runs or goes at a slower rate, we pick it up. So as a team, I feel we have confidence and trust in every one of them. All the reasons and all the worries are outside, not for us,” he remarked.
Parag said the strategy during the chase was to keep wickets in hand while maintaining a steady required run rate of 10+ per over.
“I think the plan was to keep wickets in hand, but not fall too behind the run-rate. The way the openers went, Vaibhav and Jaiswal, I feel it just made our jobs very easier as usual. But the tough part was after the powerplay, keeping that momentum, keeping going at 10 an over. I think right after the powerplay, we got like overs of five, eight and something like that. So we got behind a little bit, but then we picked it up again,” the captain stated.
“(On Dubey-Ferreira stand) Absolutely. I think him and Don, the way they played, they took it away from Punjab. I honestly thought it was going to be a very neck-to-neck because they would bowl a little bit more slower balls after watching us bowl it. But yeah, I think the way they batted, immense, like commendable,” he concluded.
This was RR’s sixth win in nine games this season. They are currently holding third spot in the team standings, with 12 points.