Nitish Rana Opens Up On Super Over Snub Against Delhi Capitals, Says, 'All Decisions Were...'

DC vs RR IPL 2025: Rajasthan Royals star all-rounder Nitish Rana has come out in his team management's support of the decision to send Riyan Parag and Shimron Hetmyer during the Super Over against Delhi Capitals on Wednesday. Although Rana himself performed brilliantly with the bat besides Yashasvi Jaiswal, they weren't the team management's first choice to bat during the Super Over against Delhi Capitals.

While chasing 188 runs, Rana had scored a gritty knock of 51 runs off 28 balls and Jaiswal had scored 51 runs off 37 balls and helped the team reach the Super over, even though the team suffered a batting collapse.

During the post-match press conference, Rana backed the team's decision to send Hetmyer and Parag for the Super Over despite him being the Rajasthan-based franchise's best batter.

"The management takes the call, not one person. The captain is there along with two other senior players and coaches. If Shimron Hetmyer had hit two sixes, then you wouldn't be asking this question. I will give the same answer. I don't have any other answer. Whatever decisions we took were right. Hetmyer is our finisher, that everyone knows. He has delivered in the past," Rana told reporters during the post-match press conference.

"One person never takes such calls. Management and support staff are there to discuss such things. If the decision was in our favour then your question would have been different. Cricket is a result-oriented sport. If Sandeep Sharma had bowled well in the Super Over, which he has done in the past. In this situation, he was most likely the bowler for us. We were one big shot less. We were targeting 15 runs in the Super Over," he said.

Brain fade cost RR in Super Over

Since the Sanju Samson-led side batted first during the Super Over, Parag and Hetmyer could score just 11 runs. Parag was run out owing to misjudgement and Jaiswal, who was the third batter was also dismissed similarly.

During the game, Parag had scored just eight runs and then got out, whereas Hetmyer being the finisher couldn't do much during the death overs and that's why the match went towards the Super Over.

The team management's decision not to send Rana and Jaiswal for the Super Over drew backlash from the fans since DC's KL Rahul and Tristan Stubbs chased down the target quite comfortably with two balls remaining.