Riyan Parag stole the show in IPL 2022 last night by scoring a match-winning half-century against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. He won the Man of the Match award for his incredible knock that helped the Rajasthan Royals win the game by 29 runs.
However, most cricket fans would know that before yesterday’s match, Parag would often be trolled on social media because of his shortcomings. He is a very young player who plays a challenging role in a T20 team.
Since he does not have much experience, it was natural for him to fail in the initial matches. Yesterday at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune, where most of the batters failed to make an impact, Riyan Parag scored an unbeaten 56 off just 31 balls. He hit three fours and four sixes in his knock.
Soon after, a Twitter user posted an old video of how Kumar Sangakkara would motivate Riyan Parag in the dressing room after his failures.
“Riyan, you’re a boy who believes in yourself. You’ve got a swagger, you’ve got that attitude, bring that to the game, to your batting, to everything you do. I don’t want you to lose that. Because that is a part of what makes you a special, special player.”
Sanga was always behind Riyan ❤ pic.twitter.com/0dFoIhmp23
— Bharath (@carromball_) April 26, 2022
Riyan Parag reveals what Kumar Sangakkara told him during the strategic timeout
As mentioned ahead, Riyan Parag won the Man of the Match award in the match between the Rajasthan Royals and the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Speaking at the post-match presentation, Parag disclosed that he had a chat with Kumar Sangakkara during the strategic timeout. Here’s what he had to say:
“During the time-out, Sanga told me 140 would be a good total and my aim was to go off in the final over which worked out.”
Parag scored 18 runs off the last over and helped RR finish with 144 runs in their 20 overs.
