Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag didn’t hold back during the post-match presentation after his team’s rough loss to Delhi Capitals in IPL 2026. It was Rajasthan’s fourth defeat in five games, and they missed a chance to climb to fourth in the points table. When he got asked about his team’s batting, bowling, and fielding, Parag was brutally honest. He said the players just “weren’t up to the mark,” and if they keep playing like this, they don’t deserve a spot in the top four.
Now, Rajasthan has to win both of their last matches if they want to make the playoffs. They’re sitting fifth with six wins and six losses. Harsha Bhogle pushed Parag to break down where things went off track, and he didn’t sugarcoat it.
“Pretty much everything, actually,” Parag said. “We were in a good place after 14 overs. After I got out, we couldn’t take advantage. We should’ve ended up with 220 or 230 runs. As for the bowling, we just weren’t there. Ferreira wasn’t a gamble. It might look like one on TV, but with two left-handers, I’d rather go with Donovan than have Shanaka bowl again. That didn’t work out. Fielding? Very poor. If you want to win trophies and be a contender every year, you’ve got to be better than what we showed today. I’m extremely disappointed.”
He went on, “We’re honestly a much better team than what we’ve shown in the last five games. But today, coming off a break, the energy, skill, execution—none of it was up to standard. If we keep playing like this, we shouldn’t even be chasing the top four.”
Parag didn’t hide his frustration about the bowling and fielding either, saying it all fell short and the team just hasn’t lived up to its potential lately. If Rajasthan misses out on the playoffs, he said it’ll be on them, no excuses.
Harsha reminded him there’s still a chance if they grab wins in the next two games, but Parag wasn’t buying it. The Royals have let their fate slip into other teams’ hands, and he doesn’t want to lead like that.
“Yeah, now we’re relying on other teams, and that’s just not how I lead. I don’t want to tell my guys that we need other teams to lose so we can squeeze in with two wins. We had our chances and just blew them. So if we don’t qualify, it’s our fault—no one else’s. For the next two games, we’ll try to fix things and hopefully pull off two wins,” Parag said.
Delhi chased RR’s 194 with power at the top—Abishek Porel smashed 51 off 31 and KL Rahul added 56 off 42, putting up a 105-run opening stand and reaching 72/0 in the powerplay. Even after a little hiccup in the middle order, captain Axar Patel sealed the deal with a quick 34 off 18, finishing the chase with four balls left.
Earlier, the Royals put up 193/8 thanks to Dhruv Jurel’s 53 and Parag’s own 51. Young Vaibhav Sooryavanshi lit things up with a rapid 46 off just 21 balls, keeping it exciting even in defeat.
