Rajasthan Royals defeated Mumbai Indians by 30 runs in a do-or-die match on Sunday. With this victory, Rajasthan Royals became the fourth team to qualify for the IPL 2026 playoffs. Before Rajasthan, Gujarat Titans, RCB and Sunrisers Hyderabad have qualified for the playoffs. Even after winning the thrilling match, Rajasthan captain Riyan Parag did not look happy.

After the match, Rajasthan captain Riyan Parag said, “It feels good when things go according to plan. I know we have won the match, we have qualified. But we can still do better in many areas.”

On the decision to send Archer at number seven and Jadeja at number nine, Parag said, “We needed runs. This is a pitch where two batsmen playing together cannot score runs on every ball. We wanted one batsman to take the risk and the other batsman to stay for a little longer. Jadeja was reliable as always. I knew that in the end he would get us at least 20 runs in 10 balls, and he did just that. True. I must say, I have taken many bold decisions this season and I like captaining like this.

On the question of bringing Archer back into the bowling for Hardik’s wicket, Parag said, “I thought that there is only one player who can get Hardik out, and that is Joffra. This decision proved to be very beneficial.”

Regarding his fitness, Riyan Parag said that I am not completely fit. I was able to play because of my mental strength. I did not want to play today’s match.

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Rajasthan Royals had to face defeat against Delhi Capitals on Sunday in IPL 2026. Rajasthan team has now slipped to sixth place in the points table. To reach the playoffs, they will now have to win the remaining two matches at any cost. After the defeat against Delhi, Rajasthan captain Riyan Parag looked very angry. After the match he even said that if we keep playing like this, we will not be able to make it to the playoffs.

If we keep playing like this, we will not be able to go to the playoffs – Ryan Parag

After the defeat against Delhi Capitals, Riyan Parag said, “I think if we want to win the trophy, we will have to show a better game. I am very disappointed. I think we are a much better team than how we have performed in the last four-five matches. However, after coming from the break, I feel that the energy, skill and execution we have shown today is obviously not the same. If we keep playing like this, we will be on top. Will not be in the race for four.”

Let us tell you that Rajasthan not only disappointed in batting against Delhi, their fielding was also very poor. Yashraj Punja dropped the catch of KL Rahul when he could not even open his account. Along with this, Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Riyan Parag himself also made a lot of mistakes in fielding. However, despite this, Rajasthan remained in the match in the last overs. In the last 3 overs, Delhi Capitals needed 35 runs to win. Akshar Patel was set at the crease, while David Miller came to the crease. Even with overs left for Dasun Shanaka and Adam Milne, captain Parag handed the ball to Donovan Ferreira. This move of Ryan completely backfired and Akshar-Miller scored 16 runs from this over and the match tilted in favor of Delhi.

What did Parag say about bowling to Ferreira?

Talking about the decision to bowl Ferreira in the 18th over of the innings, Ryan said, “It was not a gamble. I know it looks like a gamble on TV, but then you had two left-handed batsmen at the crease. I would rather have Donovan Ferreira bowl and take a chance than have Shanaka bowl another over.”

During batting, Rajasthan Royals scored only 41 runs losing six wickets in the last seven overs. After 14 overs the team’s score was 160/2. In the 15th over, Starc gave three big blows to the team, which also included the wicket of captain Ryan Parag.

According to captain Ryan, Rajasthan batsmen failed to take advantage of the set platform after his dismissal. He said, “The score should have been 220-230. As far as bowling is concerned, I think our performance was very poor. We failed to perform as per expectations.”

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