Jaipur: Young Riyan Parag showed why he is considered a precocious talent as he struck a stunning 84 not out off 45 balls to set up a 12-run win for Rajasthan Royals (RR) against Delhi Capitals (DC) in their IPL match here on Thursday.
Sent in to bat, RR were reduced to 36/3 in the eighth over but the 22-year-old Parag single-handedly took the home side to 185/5 with a magnificent knock studded with seven fours and six sixes.
Parag, who was promoted to No. 4 by the team management this season and made 43 in the previous match, took 25 runs off South African pacer Anrich Nortje in the final over to hit his highest T20 score.
DC could only manage 173/5 in their reply though South African youngster Tristan Stubbs (44 not out off 23 balls) kept them in the hunt till the final over from which they needed 17 runs.
Avesh Khan conceded just four runs to help RR win their second consecutive match while DC suffered their second straight loss.
South African pacer Nandre Burger and Yuzvendra Chahal took two wickets apiece to also contribute to the RR win.
"Definitely disappointed. The best thing to do from here is to learn from it. The bowlers did well through the 15-16 overs. But the batters did well at the death, hopefully we do better in the next game," DC skipper Rishabh Pant said.
DC were reduced to 34/2 in the fourth over with Burger taking two wickets in three balls in a fine display of fast bowling.
Burger, who was brought in as 'Impact Player/ for Shimron Hetmyer, dismissed opener Mitchell Marsh (23 off 12 balls) and Ricky Bhui (0) in the fourth over.
DC captain Rishabh Pant came out to bat at the fall of Bhui's wicket and along with senior batter David Warner built the innings without taking too much risk. Delhi were 89/2 at the halfway stage.
Warner was the more aggressive one as he got the boundaries to keep DC in the hunt. The senior Australian batter fell one run short of his fifty courtesy a brilliant diving catch by Sandeep Sharma off the bowling of Avesh in the 12th over.
Warner and Pant were involved in a 67-run partnership for the third wicket.
Playing in his 100th IPL match and 14 months after a horrible car crash, Pant tried to build the innings with occasional boundaries. But he got out for a 26-ball 28 as Chahal induced a faint lower edge for Sanju Samson to do the rest behind the stumps in the 14th over.
The asking rate shot up to more than 13 runs an over and DC needed 66 from the last five overs.
Stubbs kept DC stay afloat with two consecutive sixes off Ravichandran Ashwin in the 17th over, but in the end they fell short.
Earlier, Parag shared 54 and 52 runs respectively with Ashwin (29) and Dhruv Jurel (20) after RR made a shaky start.
Royals captain Sanju struck three consecutive boundaries in the fourth over bowled by pacer Mukesh Kumar before nicking a Khaleel Ahmed delivery two overs later to Pant to get out for 15.
RR were 30/2 by then as Mukesh had given DC their first breakthrough with the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal (5).
Royals were in more trouble after wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav literally forced Pant to take a review, which later proved to be successful, to dismiss Englishman Jos Buttler for an LBW decision.
Ashwin came out to bat at No. five and he lofted a Kuldeep delivery for a six to help RR reach 58/3 at halfway stage. He gave Nortje even a harsher treatment with two sixes in the next over that yielded 15 runs.
Ashwin, however, holed out to Stubbs near the boundary ropes for a 19-ball 29.
Parag then made his presence felt and cut loose in the final overs.
