Rajasthan Royals Coach Rahul Dravid Defends Batters After IPL Loss to Punjab Kings

In a recent IPL 2025 match, Rajasthan Royals faced a narrow defeat against Punjab Kings, with coach Rahul Dravid defending his batters despite their struggles. The match showcased a thrilling performance from both teams, particularly from Punjab's Harpreet Brar. As the Royals slip in the points table, Dravid's insights on the team's performance shed light on their challenges. Read on for a detailed recap of the match and Dravid's comments.

By Narendra Chaudhary May 19, 2025, 02:30 IST

Rajasthan Royals Face Defeat Against Punjab Kings

Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], May 19 (Media House): Following the Rajasthan Royals' (RR) loss to the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the IPL 2025, head coach Rahul Dravid expressed his support for the team's batters despite their underwhelming performance in the 59th match of the tournament.

In a thrilling encounter at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, the Punjab Kings triumphed over the Rajasthan Royals by a narrow margin of 10 runs, thanks to an outstanding bowling display from left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar.

This victory propelled the Punjab Kings to the second position in the points table with 17 points from 12 matches, while the Rajasthan Royals fell to ninth place, accumulating only 6 points from 13 games.

During the post-match press conference, Dravid commented on the loss, stating, "It's not just about blaming the batters. Honestly, I didn't believe it was a 220-run wicket; it seemed more like a 195 or 200-run pitch, and we conceded an extra 20 runs. Statistically, we haven't been effective with the ball, both in terms of taking wickets and controlling runs. We're consistently chasing scores of 200-220 every match."

Choosing to bat first, the Punjab Kings found themselves at 34/3 early on. However, a crucial 67-run partnership between captain Shreyas Iyer (30 runs off 25 balls) and Nehal Wadhera (70 runs off 37 balls) helped stabilize their innings. This was followed by a 58-run collaboration between Wadhera and Shashank Singh (59 not out off 30 balls), which solidified PBKS's position. An explosive late partnership between Shashank and Azmatullah Omarzai (21 runs off just 3 balls) propelled PBKS to a total of 219/5 in their allotted overs.

Tushar Deshpande was the standout bowler for RR, taking 2 wickets for 37 runs.

In response, RR's young openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (50 runs off 25 balls) and Vaibhav Suryavanshi (40 runs off 15 balls) provided a strong start, scoring 76 runs in just 4.5 overs. Despite losing wickets, RR maintained a competitive run rate, with Dhruv Jurel contributing a solid 53 runs off 31 balls. However, the rest of the batting lineup struggled under pressure, and RR ultimately fell short, finishing at 209/7.

Harpreet Brar emerged as the leading bowler for PBKS with figures of 3 wickets for 22 runs, while Marco Jansen (2/41) and Omarzai (2/44) also performed well.