"Credit to the way they bowled": Riyan Parag was left awestruck with SRH's two debutants after loss in IPL 2026

Rajasthan Royals skipper Riyan Parag did not back away from confessing to his team's poor show in the powerplay, but heaped praise on the SRH pacers for their quality spell upfront. He also praised the batting depth of the side, highlighting their bounce back following a poor start.

This was the first time Parag was on the losing side this season; however, he has always looked like a happy soul, even when he had lost all his matches as the captain back in IPL 2025, before winning a couple of them.

Rajasthan Royals finally lost their first game of the season, and after their poor outing with the bat against the Sunrisers, they are still at the top of the points table. Sunrisers took a massive leap in the IPL points table, now sealing a spot in the top 4.

Sunrisers rack up 200+ total with Ishan KIshan leading from the front

The Rajasthan Royals skipper Riyan Parag won the toss and opted to bowl first, which did not seem like the right decision at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. However, they had the perfect start with Jofra Archer dismissing the most dangerous batter, Abhishek Sharma, on the very first ball.

However, Ishan Kishan set the tone for the innings, with a stunning 91-run knock as he built two partnerships alongside Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen. After Kishan's dismissal, Heinrich Klaasen took the match ahead alongside Nitish Kumar Reddy.

The runs piled upon, and they set a massive target of 217 runs, which could be the second-highest total to be chased at this venue. It was now the SRH bowlers' turn, who had failed to defend the highest of scores in recent times.

Indian uncapped debutant pacers have done the trick for SRH with the ball

Sunrisers Hyderabad have struggled to bowl well and have lost matches despite having scored 200+ runs in the competition. The Sunrisers handed the Indian uncapped pacers Sakib Hussain and Praful Hinge their debut caps.

Hinge took up the new ball and struck miraculously thrice in the same over, which broke the backbone of the RR's batting order. Sakib dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal in the second over, and then Hinge returned to dismiss the RR skipper Riyan Parag in the third over.

With five wickets down in the 3 overs within the powerplay, the Royals surely had lost any hope of bouncing back in the game. They were off to some respectable score with the massive partnership between Ravindra Jadeja and Donovan Ferreira.

Sakib and Praful finished with 4 wickets each, after 58 runs were shared between the two bowlers in their 8 overs. Eshan Malinga picked up the remaining two wickets as they won the match by a massive margin of 57 runs.

"Not a lot of time to process emotions, to be honest." - Riyan Parag

Riyan Parag spoke honestly about the match results, "Not a lot of time to process emotions, to be honest. We lost back-to-back wickets, credit to the way they bowled. There were probably a few miscalculations from our side as well, but we will just take this as a blip and not think about it too much. It was actually pretty good."

"I felt bowling second might have been better, probably because we lost wickets early. It was a little sticky with the new ball while it had shine. Once the shine wore off, it slowed down a bit. In hindsight, we could have bowled second, but there are a lot of things we could have done better."

"From a batting perspective, being five wickets down for nine runs and still getting to 160 says a lot about the depth in our batting. There are definitely positives to take, it could have been a lot worse, and we had a strong partnership in there as well. Like I said, it’s just a blip. We move on to Kolkata and look to do better," Riyan Parag showed faith on his team's strong batting depth.

ALSO READ: IPL Points Table 2026: Updated Standings, Orange Cap, Purple Cap After SRH vs RR Match 21