Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Riyan Parag commended the match-winning efforts of Donovan Ferreira and Shubham Dubey for taking the game away from table-toppers Punjab Kings (PBKS) in New Chandigarh on Tuesday.
After Parag was dismissed for 29, RR needed 58 off the final five overs. There was no set batter, and the pressure was building on Ferreira, who was struggling with his timing. In came Dubey, who put the pressure back on PBKS by smashing boundaries at frequent intervals. Ferreira soon came into his own and took down Arshdeep Singh and Lockie Ferguson in the 18th and 19th overs to win the game for his team. The unbeaten fifth-wicket partnership of 77 between Ferreira and Dubey sealed the most successful run chase in Mullanpur.
“Absolutely. I think he and Don, the way they played, took it away from Punjab,” Parag said in the post-match presentation ceremony. “I honestly thought it was going to be very neck-and-neck because they would bowl a few more slower balls after watching us bowl them. But yes, the way they batted was immense, truly commendable.”
The decision to promote Ferreira and use Dubey as an impact substitute ahead of Ravindra Jadeja and Dasun Shanaka proved to be a brilliant call by RR.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 51-run opening stand gave RR an ideal start. That was followed by another fifty-run stand between Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel.
PBKS got back into the game through Yuzvendra Chahal’s three-wicket haul, but the fast bowlers conceded a lot of boundaries in the final five overs, costing them the game.
This was PBKS’s first loss of the season and RR’s sixth win of the season.
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