Courtesy: BCCI/IPL
Delhi Capitals (DC) captain Axar Patel expressed surprise over Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) move to send Yashasvi Jaiswal at number three in the Super Over as the former was expecting the latter to open. When the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 match between DC and RR at the Arun Jaitley Stadium moved to the Super Over, the visiting side sent Shimron Hetmyer and Riyan Parag to open the batting innings for them. The RR team management ignored Jaiswal and Nitish Rana, who performed superbly in the game earlier. The decision stunned several which included Axar as well.
Following the match, Axar attended a press conference and said he was expecting Jaiswal to open with Parag but the DC skipper was stunned to see Hetmyer as the Caribbean batter was struggling to time the ball before in the game. "Hetmyer wasn't able to connect in the match either...So I felt Jaiswal and Riyan would come out. But it worked out well for us, whoever they sent out," remarked Axar in the post-match press conference. Both Hetmyer and Parag could score only 11 runs for RR against DC, who relied on their premier pacer Mitchell Starc for a frugal over. Hetmyer attempted four balls from the Aussie and could score only six runs.
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Shane Watson dazed at RR’s decision for ignoring Nitish Rana for the Super Over
Former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson, who captained RR in 2014 and 2015, looked rankled for RR’s decision to ignore Nitish Rana in the Super Over. Watson feels Royals should’ve trusted Rana as he looked settled at the crease while chasing the target for them. The left-handed batter racked up 51 off 28 and emerged as the best batter for Rajasthan in the match.
"There were some brainfade moments as there were couple of run-outs. We kept on saying what wrong has Nitish Rana done that he was not sent in the Super Over. You have a batter who is set and has scored runs. In that case, not sending him made no sense," said Watson.
