Rajasthan Royals (RR) have had a horrible Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 so far. They have botched up two run chases in a row, one being at home against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the absence of an injured Sanju Samson. After the two-run defeat, the IPL 2008-winners have been accused of match-fixing by the convenor of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCB) ad hoc committee, Jaideep Bihani.
The BJP MLA from Sri Ganganagar said that even a kid would say that the match against LSG was fixed as RR failed to chase down nine runs against Avesh Khan. Bihani also slammed the franchise for not letting RCA be a part of the management.
"The ad hoc committee has been appointed by the state government in Rajasthan. It has extended for a fifth time. We make sure all competitions take place without any issues. But then just as IPL came, the Zila Parishad (district council) took control of it. For IPL, the BCCI had first sent a letter to RCA only, not Zila Parishad. The excuse given by them and RR that we don’t have an MOU from Sawai Mansingh Stadium. If MOU is not there, so what? Aren’t you paying Zila Parishad for every match?” he told News18 Rajasthan.
RR were 156/2 in the run chase. Yashasvi Jaiswal and stand-in captain Riyan Parag were in the middle. They needed 25 runs from 18 balls but then Avesh dismissed Jaiswal and Parag. In the final over, wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer and Shubham Dubey failed to scored nine runs.
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RR are placed eighth on the points table with six losses from eight games. Their next match is against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on April 24 at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium. Their next home fixture is against table-toppers Gujarat Titans (GT) on April 28.
No Samson for RCB match
Meanwhile, RR will be without the services of Samson for the RCB game as he is yet to recover from abdominal injury suffered during run chase against Delhi Capitals (DC).
"Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson is currently undergoing recovery and will remain at the team's home base with select RR medical staff. As part of his ongoing rehab process, he will not be travelling to Bangalore for the upcoming match against RCB," RR said in a statement.
"The team management is monitoring his progress closely and will take a game-by-game approach regarding his return to action."