Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Rajasthan Royals (RR) by just one run as RR stand-in captain Riyan Parag‘s heroic knock of 95 went in vain. KKR were cruising at one stage with RR down to 71/5. Parag kickstarted a dramatic comeback by slamming five sixes off Moeen Ali in a single over. Prior to that, however, Parag could scarcely believe what was happening as RR lost two wickets in one over, with Varun Chakravarthy picking up the wickets of Dhruv Jurel and Wanindu Hasaranga.
Bowling the eighth over, Dhruv Jurel was left completely bamboozled by a googly from Chakravarthy. Unable to read it, Jurel’s stumps were knocked over as he departed for a golden duck.
With four wickets down, RR decided to send Wanindu Hasaranga up the order as a temporary stabilizer. But, almost hilariously, Hasaranga suffered an identical dismissal. Hasaranga was outfoxed by another googly from Chakravarthy, as he also departed for a duck.
Riyan Parag, who watched along from the other end, could barely believe what he was seeing. The 23-year-old was nearly expression-less at the way things proceeded.
Riyan Parag slowly realising that captaining a side is not his cup of tea #RRvsKKR pic.twitter.com/5tBW8x8KTq
— Nirmal Jyothi (@majornirmal) May 4, 2025
Parag and Shimron Hetmyer collected boundaries in later overs, bringing RR to 100-run mark in 11.5 overs.
Moeen Ali was taken down brilliantly by Parag in the 13th over, which was a game-turning match for RR. Parag launched him for five sixes, bringing up his first fifty in 27 balls, with five fours and three sixes.
At the end of 15 overs, RR was at 155/5, with Hetmyer (28*) and Parag (86*) unbeaten.
The partnership was broken by Harshit as a fine catch by Narine removed Hetmyer for 29 in 23 balls, with a four and six. After the breaking of this 92-run stand, RR was 163/6 in 15.5 overs.
Riyan’s wonderful effort came to an end with Harshit getting his wicket, with a fine catch from Vaibhav. He was gone for 95 in 45 balls, with six fours and eight sixes. RR was 173/7 in 17.4 overs.
Jofra Archer and Shubham Dubey continued the chase, with 22 runs needing in the final over. Dubey smashed Vaibhav for six, four, six, but failed to complete the two runs on the final over to take the game to the final over. RR finished at 205/8 in their 20 overs, with Shubham (25* in 14 balls, with a four and two sixes) and Archer run out for 12 runs.
With ANI inputs
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