RR vs LSG: Rayudu says Royals crumbled under pressure, Boucher blames Jaiswal, Parag for shock loss

Ambati Rayudu and Mark Boucher have questioned the lack of execution and strategic blunders from the Rajasthan Royals (RR) as they suffered another close defeat in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 . RR lost by two runs to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at Jaipur on Saturday, a few days after losing to Delhi Capitals (DC) in a Super Over.

Rajasthan Royals needed 25 from the last 18 balls and had two set batters at the crease – Yashasvi Jaiswal (batting on 74) and Riyan Parag (batting on 38) – however, Avesh Khan’s brilliant 18th over, in which he dismissed both the batters, turned the game on its head.

Only six runs were collected in the last over by Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel as Avesh produced another terrific death over to inflict a damaging loss on RR.

Rayudu says RR failed to deal with pressure vs LSG

Former India batter Rayudu felt RR panicked under pressure and failed to come up with the required solutions when Avesh took over the death bowling with his lethal yorkers.

“They just panicked,” Rayudu told ESPNCricinfo. “Under pressure, they had no answers. They should have been more proactive because you knew Avesh was going to bowl those Yorkers. You should have been better prepared, especially after the last game that you lost in Super Over against Delhi, you should have been expecting something like that can happen again.

“The batters could have played a lap (shot) or just stood outside the pitch, converted it into a full toss or maybe stepped out. There are so many things that you can do but under pressure, you get tight and you don’t really think clearly, so that’s what happened.”

Former Mumbai Indians coach and South African great Boucher questioned RR’s decision to send in Hetmyer after Jurel and only at the start of the 18th over, when the West Indian is their designated finisher. Boucher said such a strategy left Hetmyer with less number of balls and put him under unnecessary pressure.

“We have been questioning that decision to hold him (Hetmyer) back. The reasons we have been floating around for him to be held back are maybe a left-hand right-hand combination and the second one is that he has been held back to finish off games. 17 overs is where he should go in. Surely that opportunity presented itself right there, right then and it wasn’t taken,” Boucher told ESPNCricinfo.

“I am not too sure why he didn’t go in at that stage, why put him under even more pressure to finish off the games by giving him even more less balls. There probably is a reason why they sent Jurel in ahead of Hetmyer. We will have to wait for what that reason is before we start criticising it too much.”

Boucher criticises lack of intensity from Jaiswal and Parag

Boucher also criticised Jaiswal and Parag for not speeding things up when the Royals were in control, accusing them of leaving it too late. Jaiswal and Parag had a partnership of 62 runs in 43 balls.

“If you look at the whole though, RR were cruising with five-six overs left. You feel there’s no way LSG could make a comeback. Yes, if they had lost 5-6 wickets but they only lost two wickets. I also think the intensity could have been raised by the two batters at that particular stage,” Boucher underlined.

“You almost say, ‘right we are in full control of the match, let’s make sure our intensity doesn’t drop, we keep the momentum with us and we make sure that we finish this game with over and half to spare’ rather than taking it down to the wire where anything can happen and we have seen in the last game that anything can happen. There might just have been a time in the game where they took the foot off the gas and that is where LSG got a bit of momentum going their way and then you lose the wickets and then the pressure was back on RR.”

It was RR’s sixth defeat in eight matches and they are currently in the eighth spot in the IPL 2025 points table with just two wins.