Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Riyan Parag overcame poor form to score a 50-ball 90 in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 game against Delhi Capitals (DC) on May 1. This was Parag’s first half-century of the season, a game after he was fined 25 per cent of match fee and a demerit point for vaping inside the dressing room during the match. The batting all-rounder feels he doesn’t need to answer any critics but rues that his knock ended up in a losing cause.
"I don't think I need to answer any critics or anyone talking about it (vaping). But at the end of the day, my job is to get two points. So, my score and my innings don't really matter if we lose the game," said Parag at the post-match presentation.
Parag feels RR lost the game in middle overs
Parag was happy with the target of 226 set by the hosts. He wasn’t happy with the bowling in the middle overs which led to the loss.
"I think it was a good score. I thought 200 was a par score here. It was going to slow down a bit, but I think we could have bowled way better in the middle overs, not let them get away a little too much.
"And then a lot of boundaries in one single over and that repeated. So, I felt we missed the trick with that, but no harm with the decision we made," he added.
Parag on hamstring injury
Towards the back end of the innings, Parag sustained a hamstring injury. He left the field and Yashasvi Jaiswal captained during the slog overs. He gave an update on his injury as well.
"Hopefully it's not too serious, but a little bit on the hamstring. Thankfully, we have about a week break, so we'll clear it out," he added.
Rajasthan Royals’ next game
This was RR's fourth loss from 10 games. They are placed fourth on the points table. They have a long layoff ahead of him. Their next clash is against Gujarat Titans (GT) on May 9.
Parag’s IPL 2026 numbers improve
From 10 innings in the ongoing season, Parag has scored 207 runs at an average of 23 and strike rate of 143.75.