Rajasthan Royals had 155 to defend and very little room for mistakes, and the match ultimately swung into Kolkata Knight Riders’ favour in the closing moments. The chase was decided in the last over, with Rinku Singh striking a six to seal KKR’s first victory of the season.
In the post-match presentation, Riyan Parag was asked to explain his bowling switches—especially the decision to bring Brijesh Sharma into the attack unexpectedly, first in the 18th over, and then again in the 20th. Parag also addressed why he chose Brijesh despite Nandre Burger being available at the time.
Parag said of Brijesh, “He was almost there to bowl, I feel, the 14th and the 16th as well. But then they [KKR] lost wickets and then there were left-handers, so I brought myself in [to bowl offspin] and the spinners were going really well. I showed trust in the spinners that we might get a slog or something to get a wicket. We almost did that.”
His comments referenced the moment when Rinku had a chance to break the contest open while he was on 8, off Ravindra Jadeja’s bowling. Burger ended up bowling that over and did not give away the wicket or the scoring burst KKR might have hoped for. At that stage, KKR were 73 for 5, with Ravi Bishnoi and T20 debutant Yash Raj Punja limiting the pressure by denying clear-cut scoring opportunities.
Parag added, “Spin was extracting a lot. There was a lot of spin on the wicket. The way Jaddu, Bishi, Punja all bowled, I felt the need of the hour was spin. And that’s why I went with it. When it works out, it looks nice. I felt it worked out today as well, but just a few errors here and there that cost us two points.”
Parag later explained why he eventually moved away from the spin-heavy plan. The specialist bowlers he had kept for later overs—Jadeja and Punja—had the ability to get batters out in the middle, specifically Rinku and Anukul Roy.
He then clarified the thinking behind Brijesh’s role in the death overs: “And once Bishnoi’s over was done, I felt spinners might go here because of the left-handed combination, so I felt Brijesh was going to go 18 and 20.”
Rajasthan Royals did push the contest right up to the final over, but they couldn’t finish the job. They now sit with four wins from six matches and will travel to Lucknow to take on the Super Giants on April 22.
