Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag said that sloppy fielding caused them a five-wicket defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2026) match on Saturday, April 25.

Despite a fantastic batting performance, Rajasthan were undone by numerous missed opportunities. The highlight of their innings was a stunning century by 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who hit 103 off 37 balls, one of the fastest hundreds in IPL history. Contributions from Dhruv Jurel and Donovan Ferreira helped RR post a formidable 228/6.

RR’s poor fielding became their bane as SRH batters capitalized on it. Abhishek Sharma made 57, and Ishan Kishan slammed 74, setting a good platform for the next batters and adding 132 runs for the second wicket.

Reflecting on the defeat, Parag said, “I think skill-wise, we executed pretty nicely, but I think we dropped a few too many catches. Quality players like Abhishek and everyone who batted—I feel you can’t really drop catches of them, and you can’t really give them second chances. And they took them, so credit to that. But we could have been better on the field."

“We left like 10-15 on the table. To be honest, they bowled really well in the 18th and the 19th overs. They executed really good yorkers. I felt not much we could not have done much. But best-case scenario, I think we would have liked another 15 runs," he added.

Jofra Archer picked 2/34 amidst the onslaught and received rich praise from RR captain Riyan Parag.

“He’s been such a sensation this whole season. Another classical performance for him. Unlucky as well, a lot of top edges in between the keeper and the fielders. So yeah, a few unlucky chances, a few chances that we gave away," he noted.

(ANI inputs)