Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag refused to hit the panic button after his side suffered a devastating 57-run defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, insisting the team would regroup quickly ahead of their next fixture in Kolkata.
The damage was done almost immediately. SRH debutant pacer Praful Hinge struck three times in the very first over of the chase, removing Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel, and Lhuan-dre Pretorius to leave Rajasthan reeling at 9 for 5. Chasing 217, RR never truly recovered, eventually managing only 159 despite a spirited 118-run partnership between Donovan Ferreira and Ravindra Jadeja.
"Not a lot of time to feel the emotions, to be honest," Parag told reporters after the match, as reported by Yahoo Sports. "We lost back-to-back wickets, credit to the way they bowled. Probably a few miscalculations from us, but we will just take this as a blip and not think about it too much."
The young skipper had particular praise for SRH's previously unfamiliar debutant seamers, Hinge and Sakib Hussain, who combined to tear through the Royals' top order. "The way they bowled the first four, five overs, I think really was beautiful," Parag said, adding that the home crowd's energy seemed to lift the young bowlers rather than weigh them down.
Parag also defended his decision not to use Jadeja with the ball during SRH's innings, explaining that Ishan Kishan's fluent batting made him reluctant to take the risk. He estimated SRH's total was roughly 30 runs above par given the conditions, noting the pitch was sticky under the new ball before slowing down as the shine wore off.
Despite the lopsided result, Parag found a silver lining in his team's lower-order resilience. "Being five wickets down for nine runs and still getting 160, that says a lot about the depth of our batting," he said. The Royals now turn their attention to Kolkata, where Parag promised his side would "do something better."
