Riyan Parag becomes the first player since Virat Kohli to win...

Rajasthan Royals top-order batsman Riyan Parag was perhaps at his very best last night during his team’s 12-run victory against Delhi Capitals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

In front of home support, Parag brought out his best and maybe this is the start of his comeback in the Indian Premier League after a terrible 2023 season. His blistering knock of 84* not just helped RR win but it also made him the only player after Virat Kohli to win 4 individual awards in a match.

Riyan Parag received a total of 4 individual awards last night for his wonderful knock and that made him the first since Virat Kohli to grab those awards including the Man of the Match.

Before we get into the awards that Parag won last night, we must acknowledge the way he handled Rajasthan’s unsteady ship after the top-order collapsed for less than 40 runs.

Yashasvi Jaiswal (5), Jos Buttler (11), and Sanju Samson (15), all departed cheaply and if it wasn’t for the dependable innings from Riyan Parag then RR could not have posted 186.

Parag saw Ravichandran Ashwin (29 off 19) and Dhruv Jurel (20 off 12) come and leave after their short but effective contributions while Shimron Hetmeyer stood with the right-hander until the last.

Which awards did Riyan Parag win last night?

It was awards galore for Riyan Parag for his match-saving knock that kept Rajasthan Royal on track and helped them win their 2nd match on the trot. It started with the RuPay On-the-go 4s award as Parag amassed 7 fours in his innings then the 6s of the match for his 6 sixes – 2 in the final over of Anrich Nortje.

The 22-year-old was also adjudged as the Fantasy Player of the match for amassing a total of 121 fantasy points and lastly was the Man of the Match award. The only trophy he could not or a Non-Rajasthan Royals player won was the Punch.EV Electric striker of the match was given for batting with the highest strike rate. Delhi’s Aussie opener Mitchell Marsh received that for batting at a 192 strike rate.

Riyan Parag’s performance came at a time when the team needed him the most or when he needed to stand up and play out a knock that could be talked about for a long time. And certainly, he played like that. Parag started slowly, trying to assess the conditions, and the behavior of the pitch before accelerating his innings towards the backend.

He was slogging every single ball that came to him and the most impressive thing was his fearless temperament against a bowler like Anrich Nortje. Parag displayed the range of shots he has in his game with the best shot from the night coming in the final over when Nortje bowled a short-pitched delivery that was pulled away to the stands.

Riyan Parag reveals he was on painkillers for 3 days

While speaking to Sanjay Manjrekar in the post-match presentation, Riyan Parag revealed that he had been taking painkillers for the last 3 days and that he got up only today. “I have worked very hard, the last 3 days I was in bed, I was on painkillers, I just got up today and I’m very happy.” – Parag told Manjrekar.