Rajasthan Royals had to beat Punjab Kings in their final league game of the IPL 2023 season on Friday, May 19, in order to keep their chances of making the playoffs alive. The team led by Sanju Samson did what it could, and now it will have to see how Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore do against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Titans, respectively.
Notably, if both Mumbai and Bangalore lose their games, Rajasthan will have a great chance of getting into the top four. The team led by Faf du Plessis will advance if they lose by four runs or less. This is because they have a better net run rate. But if they win by five or more runs, the three-time finalists’ season will be over.
So, before the big game, young Rajasthan Royals player Riyan Paran tweeted for GT and SRH and asked them to win their games to help the 2008 winners get to the playoffs.
During the season, Parag’s performance has been closely watched, but in their last league game, the Assam-born bowler hit two sixes that helped RR win by four wickets. Even though he couldn’t finish the game, his appearance of 20 runs off of 12 deliveries helped RR in the last few overs.
RR had a very bad start as their starter Jos Buttler failed to add to his score for the second time. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal, both young players, tried to keep things under control, but as soon as they were out, things looked bad because RR needed to play bold cricket.
Shimron Hetmyer then stepped up and hit 46 runs off 28 balls to change the way the game was going. Later, RR won the match with two balls left because Dhruv Jurel kept his cool.
India
