From being in cruise control for most part to losing the way in the end, Rajasthan Royals skipper Riyan Parag took all the blame on himself for the narrow two-run defeat to Lucknow Super Giants in an IPL match here on Saturday. Chasing 181-run target, victory looked a foregone conclusion when openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and teenager Vaibhav Suryavanshi blasted off like a rocket, stitching together an 85-run partnership in the ninth over.
Things were going great for the hosts with Jaiswal striking a superb 74 off 52 deliveries and an equally belligerent Parag smashing 39 off 26 balls.
But both were dismissed by LSG pacer Avesh Khan in the 18th over, more on account of the poor selection of shots.
RR could not take the shock of losing two well-set batter and finally fell two runs short.
“Really hard to process all the emotions. Don’t know what we did wrong. We were in the game till the 18th or 19th over. I don’t know. I blame myself. I should have finished that game in the 19th over. We have to put up a game collectively,” said Parag, who led the team on Saturday due to a side strain to regular skipper Sanju Samson.
The last over, also bowled by Avesh, was one which saw the LSG bowler putting his years of experience to test and coming out winner. He also got rid of the dangerous Shimron Hetmyer to snuff out the RR challenge.
LSG pacer Shardul Thakur acknowledged Avesh’s contribution in the victory.
“We knew Avesh’s capability. Credit to Prince (Yadav) and the way he bowled the 19th over. He can surprise the batters easily with his pace. That is what we saw today and the first game in Vizag.”
Parag though would rue the last over bowled by his pacer Sandeep Sharma. Sharma was clobbered by LSG’s Abdul Samad for four sixes, which made the difference in the end.
“The last over (bowled by Sharma) was unfortunate. I thought we would have stopped them to 165-170. We gave 20 runs too many, but we should have chased it down. No complaints about the surface.”
Avesh, who was adjudged player of the match said, he was just concentrating on producing his best yorkers in his last couple of overs.
“I don’t want to become Mitchell Starc, I want to become a good Avesh Khan. I wanted to bowl with clarity and take my time. Wanted to execute my yorkers. I wanted to focus on my execution. I wanted to stop the boundaries in the first three balls,” he said.
The last over he bowled saw Avesh involved in an animated discussion with skipper Pant before virtually every delivery.
Avesh said, the discussion was about setting the field in the best possible way.
“We wanted to take our time (in the last over) and set the field right in the last over. I keep thinking about the team and wanted to win the game for the team. It is a long tournament and I just want to do it for the team,” he added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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