Rajasthan Royals skipper Riyan Parag has down-played talk of a tactical mis-step after Delhi Capitals overhauled the Royals’ 225 for 7 with seven wickets and a ball to spare in Jaipur on Friday night.
Parag said the decision to send Ravindra Jadeja in ahead of in-form finisher Donovan Ferreira was driven by match-ups rather than instinct. “It was actually lefty-righty as well,” he explained. “There was what, eight-nine overs to go. We wanted to delay it [entry point] a little bit and just get a few eight-nine [runs] an over from the spinners and then go from ball one when the seamers started to bowl. So I feel that was the plan.”
At 114 for 3 in the 12th over, Jadeja’s 14-ball 20 kept the score ticking alongside Parag, their 53-run stand paving the way for Ferreira’s late assault. The South African’s 47 from only 14 deliveries, featuring clean strikes down the ground and square, powered 78 runs off the last five overs and nudged the total, in Parag’s words, “25 above par”.
The target still proved insufficient. Delhi’s chase was anchored by a measured half-century from their captain, while Jake Fraser-McGurk and Tristan Stubbs cashed in against erring middle-overs bowling. Three separate overs leaked 18 or more, turning the chase from challenging to comfortable.
“I think it was a good score. I honestly felt 200 was somewhere on par. It was going to slow down a bit, but I think we could have bowled way better in the middle overs, we let them get away a little too much and then a lot of boundaries in one single over and that repeated. So I felt we missed the trick with that, but no harm with the decision we made [at the toss],” Parag reflected.
On television duty, former West Indies quick Ian Bishop and ex-India batter Ambati Rayudu agreed that the plan to shield Ferreira from spin made sense on paper. Bishop, though, felt the execution with the ball “lost its discipline once the ball got softer”, allowing Capitals to “pick angles and target square boundaries”.
The result nudges Delhi back into the play-off picture, while Royals have a short turnaround before facing Lucknow. How they address those untidy middle overs – and whether Ferreira continues to wait in the wings – will be central to their push for a top-two finish.
