‘Lightning strikes thrice’: Rajasthan Royals face backlash after IPL 2025 meltdown against RCB

Rajasthan Royals suffered another defeat on Thursday that has all but ended their hopes of making the IPL play-offs this season. Despite a strong start, Royals failed to complete a run chase for the third time this season as they lost by just 11 runs to Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

Prior to this match, the Riyan Parag-led franchise had lost two consecutive matches against Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants from a winning position, coincidentally requiring 9 runs from the last over in both matches. While the DC encounter went to the super over, the next one didn't even go that far.

Rajasthan Royals face backlash: 

RR needed 17 runs from the last over, but the visitors could not get going in the final over against Yash Dayal and instead lost a couple of wickets to make their job even harder. Prior to the start of the final over, former Australian batsman Simon Katich on commentary said "RR are slaughtering the chase" and after the 11-run loss.

Another commentator and former Zimbabwe cricketer Pommie Mbangwa said "Lightning strikes three times. They were on course to win but somehow ended up losing. They can only blame themselves. They couldn't exorcise the ghosts of the last two games.

After the match, RR skipper Riyan Parag blamed the batters for loss on Sunday as he told the broadcasters, "I think we did really well with the ball. It was probably like a 210 to 220 wicket. We held them back really well. With our batting halfway through our innings, we were in the driver's seat. We needed probably eight and a half runs per over in the last 10-11 overs. I think we've got ourselves to blame, we didn't show enough intent against the spinners. We could have executed our batting a little bit better."