'I don't know what we did wrong' - Parag at a loss to explain latest botched chase

For the second game in a row, Rajasthan Royals (RR) failed to close a chase out.

Three days ago, against Delhi Capitals (DC), RR needed 23 runs off the last 12 deliveries, with seven wickets standing. But the match ended in a tie, and RR lost the Super Over. While chasing 181 against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in Jaipur on Saturday, RR required 25 runs from 18 balls, and had eight wickets in hand. Yet, they lost by two runs.

After the latest reversal, RR's stand-in captain Riyan Parag said such results were "really kind of hard to process". "I don't know what we did wrong. I felt we were in the game probably till the 18th over and 19th over, actually," Parag said at the post-match presentation. "But yeah, I don't know."

With three overs to go against LSG, RR had two set batters at the crease. Yashasvi Jaiswal was batting on 74, and Parag on 38. But the 18th over from Avesh Khan began with Jaiswal bowled by a yorker, and ended with Parag trapped lbw by another yorker, as he looked to scoop but missed. In the last over, against Avesh again, Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel could score only six runs out of the nine required.

Did Jaiswal and Parag falling at a critical time make the big difference?

"I think it's something along those lines," Parag said. "I blame myself for this. I probably should have finished it in the 19th over. But then, I don't know if that was a bad decision for myself. I mean, we [have] just got to put one game together collectively for 40 overs. Only then can we expect a win."

But Parag also pointed to the one big over with the ball - the last - for taking the target beyond RR. The experienced Sandeep Sharma was taken for 27 runs in that over, with Abdul Samad smashing him for four sixes. That took LSG to 180.

"I think we did really well [with the ball]. The last over was unfortunate," he said. "I kind of thought we would stop them at like 165, [or] 170 max. The last over was unfortunate. Sandy bhai is trusted. I think he just had one bad game, and Abdul Samad batted really well. So I thought we were like probably 20 runs over par [or] 15 runs over par. But we should have chased that down."

This was RR's fourth loss in a row, and left them at eighth on the points table. They have won just two games out of eight so far, and head into their next match, an away fixture against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on April 24, after a five-day break.