Rajasthan Royals (RR) thumped Mumbai Indians (MI) in their own backyard in the recent most IPL 2024 match at the Wankhede Stadium on April 1. RR won the match by 6 wickets after restricting MI to a paltry total.
MI was asked to bat first by Sanju Samson, who won the toss and then bowlers Trent Boult and Nandre Burger gave RR a dream start.
Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir, and Dewald Brevis were all dismissed for golden ducks. Ishan Kishan (16) followed soon as MI was reduced to 20/4 in no time.
But then Hardik Pandya (34) and Tilak Varma (35) gave MI stability. However, Samson brought Yuzvendra Chahal into attack and he claimed three quick wickets as MI was restricted to 125/9 in 20 overs. Apart from Chahal, Boult (3/22) and Burger (2/32) were the pick of the bowlers.
Then in response, MI bowlers did well to remove Yashasvi Jaiswal (10), Jos Buttler (13), and Sanju Samson (12) for cheap. Akash Madhwal with 3/20 in his first game of the season impressed with the ball.
IPL 2024: Cricket fraternity reacts as Riyan Parag shines with 54* in RR's 6-wicket mauling of MI
But Riyan Parag anchored one end and made 54* with 5 fours and 3 sixes and took RR home by 6 wickets and 27 balls to spare.
After he returned from playing the knock, Parag’s mother was seen giving her son a warm hug. She also handed the cap to Parag, who has scored 181 runs from 3 games at an average of 181 and a strike rate of 160.17.
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After the match, Parag admitted that he had to resist the temptation of going for big shots against Piyush Chawla as RR was in a precarious position. Parag said that it was important for him to keep his ego aside and focus on the bigger picture. He batted until the very end as Rajasthan chased down 126 with 27 balls to spare.
“It’s a tough job. Piyush was my match-up tonight and in the first three overs, I did not even hit him for one six. I did not even try to do it. So, you have got to keep that temptation to yourself because there’s a bigger picture here. Winning two points is way bigger than me and satisfying my ego of hitting a six,” Parag said in an interview with Trent Boult.
Parag said that facing similar situations for Assam in domestic cricket has helped him immensely.
“I found the situation very familiar as I play for Assam and wickets in domestic cricket can be trickier than that. So, I have been in these situations in and out. As soon as Jos (Buttler) bhai and Ash (R Ashwin) bhai got out, I knew this was what I had been doing for the last 3-4 months. So, I was backing myself to take it deep,” he added.
RR has topped the IPL 2024 points table with 3 wins from 3 games.
