It was one of those sweet words from Rajasthan Royals skipper Riyan Parag for the Mumbai Indians after his team got a thrashing of 100 runs in this match at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur. Mumbai initially batted, scoring 217 runs, whereas RR could manage only 117 in 16.1 overs, thus ending chances for playoff qualification.
Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton scored some brisk half-centuries, while Rohit struck 53 off 36 balls and Ryan, 61 off 38. Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav finished quite well, both scoring 48 runs off just 23 balls. Riyan pointed out that he thought 190 would be a pretty good target to chase, but the way the Mumbai batters played really took the game away in the last few overs.
He said, “You have to give MI credit for how they batted, especially towards the end. Our batting didn’t click today. We could have done better, but that’s cricket.” The RR bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult put pressure on the batting line-up, with Karn Sharma wrapping things up for MI with a solid performance.
As far as the middle order, Riyan made it clear that they’ve to step up. According to him, the aspects for which they’ve done well have also been matched on the other side with the same amount of mistakes.
“We’ve been getting good starts, but crucially the middle order, including myself, needs to stand up when we have early wickets. We still believe we can do better in future games,” he said. ‘From the season so far, there have been a lot of ups and downs, but we want to keep in mind the positive things and learn from the mistakes.’ If the energy can be raised going into those last few matches, I’m pretty sure we can finish strong.
