When the Parag promise took flight

The promise of Riyan Parag took flight at 8.22 PM on Thursday.

From Jaipur's Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

It was the same venue where the same promise had crashlanded many a time last season. It was the same venue where a day earlier Kumar Sangakkara, Rajasthan Royals' head of cricket operations, had asserted that 'Maturing, understanding his game more, taking on more responsibility is non-negotiable' for Parag.

For 20 balls till then, stretching way past half an hour, it was all too familiar a tale. Not that Parag was struggling to bludgeon the Delhi Capitals bowlers while the scoring rate needed a boost. He was comfort-meandering his innings at less than run-a-ball, not even trying to disclose his attacking chops. A nudge here, a slap there, a knock everywhere. At times, beaten by Kuldeep Yadav's googly, at times mistiming a pull off Anrich Nortje. Even R Ashwin, who was sent out to bat at the fall of the third wicket, had by then clubbed three sixes, taking down Kuldeep and Nortje with authority.

Even then, Parag wore a familiar, comfortable look in the middle; exuding confidence like he was going to settle the fate of the match and sprinting between wickets with his tucked-out t-shirt as if he was gliding. No signs left in the middle that for most of the last two days, aided by painkillers, he was largely resting on the bed.

And then in the middle of the 13th over, he rocked back to a shortish delivery by Kuldeep and pulled him over the deep mid wicket fence, for well over 70 meters. A clean, crisp announcement that he packs some pedigree with the bat that's rarely been witnessed in the IPL

It was one of those rare days when all of Rajasthan Royals' top three batters were dismissed early. For several years, they have been shouldering the burden of Royals' batting. Their quick departure put their Impact Substitution plans in a bit of a concern. Moreover, with the ball holding on a bit to the wicket coupled with some tight bowling, run-scoring was becoming a task.

For a team that packs arguably the weakest lower order, they fielded five frontline bowling options for a second game in a row despite batting first. The bargain they played with was that if they could avoid a situation of bringing in Rovman Powell to bat like they did in the previous game, it allowed them the luxury of using Nandre Burger as the sixth bowling option. For that, Parag would've needed to dig deep even as the pressure of the low scoring rate complicated the dynamic role he was left to handle.

Royals' first roll of the dice in order to avert the situation was to promote Ashwin at the fall of the third wicket and lengthen the batting. With the team placed on 36 for 3 in 7.2 overs, and Delhi Capitals' two left-arm spinners - Axar Patel and Kuldeep - in operation, it was not the most surprising gamble. But the eventual success of that move not only proved handy for Parag and Royals, but Delhi Capitals' bowling coach James Hopes also admitted that Ashwin's knock flipped the momentum of the contest.

However, even when Ashwin departed in the 14th over, Royals were scoring only marginally more than run-a-ball, with only two more players with batting pedigree to follow. That's when Parag, who was cantering at a run-a-ball 26, unleashed. Not with brute force early on, but with timing and smart shot selection.

Khaleel Ahmed, who has not enjoyed the best of times against RR historically, was the first one to be taken apart. A delivery on the hips picked up for a six, a low full toss carved behind square for a boundary and a slower ball tonked over covers for a four. Mukesh Kumar and Kuldeep were met with similar disdain in the following overs as Parag muscled 24 runs in 8 balls to bring up his half-century, a mark he had previously reached in 2022 and only once prior to that in 2019 when he had announced himself in the tournament.

Nortje and Mukesh pulled the momentum back briefly, and with 10 balls to go, Royals were still kept to 148 for 5. For a team that believed 150 would be a fighting total given how the surface had played in the first half of the innings, Parag had done enough to give the Royals bowlers what they desired to put up a fight. Yet, it was far from the par score at the tricky venue in Jaipur.

But his innings had an extra gear left to run on. Parag reserved his best for the last and decimated Nortje in a 25-run final over; two massive sixes, over long off and deep mid wicket laying the boss-stamp in the contest. In taking down the reputation of one of the fastest and the best death bowlers in the game currently, Parag raised the reputation of his batting quality.

Parag's 45-ball 84, his last 19 balls yielding 58 runs, took Royals past the 180 mark, above the par score at the venue and much higher than what the bowlers had demanded. Powell remained unused, Burger shared the new-ball, and yet Delhi Capitals managed to take the contest till the last over, losing barely by a margin of 12 runs. It was enough of an indication to prove how critical Parag's knock was.

But is that all that Royals would be happy with, of that long-term investment in a young talent eventually winning them a game? For young players playing a big role on the big stage, it's called 'coming of age'. Not when the story has lasted five years.

Was that maturity on the part of the 22-year-old to eliminate risk briefly from his game even as there was the pressure of the run-rate? Was it maturity on his part to not get carried away even when Ashwin, a batter of much lesser pedigree, was making batting look simpler and pushing the bowlers away from executing their plans?

Much like Sangakkara had assessed that the biggest change in Parag from last year's IPL to this one has been his 'maturity, Suryakumar Yadav added his own assessment to that on X. "Met a guy at NCA few weeks ago. He came with a slight niggle. Completely focused on his recovery and with great discipline working on his skills. And I was not wrong to tell that to one of the coaches there 'He is a changed guy'. RIYAN PARAG 2.0. Watch out."

The change in Parag the person was taken notice of. On Thursday, he made everyone notice a better version of his batting. The promise of Parag which has taken flight didn't land on the day, and despite the fickle demands of T20 batting, his team would hope that it only goes higher and travels longer before it reaches the final destination.