Rajasthan Royals defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by three wickets on Thursday at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
For Kolkata, Dinesh Karthik slammed an unbeaten 97 off 50 deliveries and for Rajasthan, it was Jofra Archer who finished the chase with a boundary and a six in the final over.
In between these two knocks, a 17-year-old boy from Guwahati played his heart out with the bat for his 31-ball 47, which eventually took Rajasthan over the line after a series of losses in IPL 2019.
Riyan Parag replaced his skipper Steve Smith at the middle, while his team still needing 113 from 12.3 overs. Ben Stokes, Stuart Binny and Shreyas Gopal all gave away their wickets at the other end, but the youngster kept his cool.
With Rajasthan needing 54 runs to win from the last five overs. Parag, who was batting at 20 off 19 balls, suddenly decided to shift gears.
It all started with him hitting Narine for a boundary in the 16th over. The next over saw him smack Prasidh for a boundary and a six. Andre Russell too, was taken to the cleaners as the young lad smashed him for a six over long-on. All of a sudden his score had swelled up to 47 off 31 deliveries. The next ball, however, saw Parag get out via hit-wicket but not before he had put his team in a commanding position.
Twitter heaped praise on the teenager and credited him for Rajasthan’s victory.
Meanwhile, Kolkata have now lost six consecutive matches and the play-off berth for the Knights seems a bit difficult now. As far as Rajasthan is concerned, they would like to continue their good work as the season reaches the business end.
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