IPL 2024: Riyan Parag wins Orange Cap from Virat Kohli, keeping it simple is secret for success

Rajasthan Royals batter Riyan Parag is having a splendid Indian Premier League (IPL) season. After an underwhelming 2023 season, the RR batter has come back into his elements and has let his bat do the talking.

After guiding RR to a sublime six-wicket win over MI in their IPL match at the Wankhede Stadium, the Assam-born batter is now the holder of the Orange Cap - a distinction given to players with the most number of runs in the league.

That Parag has taken the Orange Cap from Virat Kohli makes it even more special for the Rajasthan batter. Although Kohli and Parag have scored the same number of runs in three matches (181 each), Parag’s highest score of 84 trumps Kohli’s 83 and helped him jump to the top of the leaderboard.

However, with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) playing Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 2, Kohli will get an opportunity to win the Orange Cap back.

Parag said keeping it simple has worked wonders for him. “I have simplified everything instead of trying to do a lot of things. Before, when I was not getting runs, I would think about it too much, try and do different stuff altogether, and then it would not work out. This year the goal was to keep it simple - watch the ball and hit the ball,” he said, after receiving the player-of-the-match award for his 54-run knock against MI.

The 22-year-old came to stabilise the Rajasthan Royals innings when they were in a spot of bother at 48/3, chasing 126. Another wicket at that point could have swung the game in Mumbai’s favour and Parag batted with caution and aggression to deny Mumbai any chance of a comeback in the match.

His innings of 54, off just 39 balls laden with five fours and three sixes, saw Rajasthan home and Parag said having batted in familiar situations in domestic cricket, he knew what he had to do. “I have said it before, when I play domestic (cricket) this is the exact type of situation I go in to bat. When Jos (Buttler) got out, and Ash (Ravichandran Ashwin) got out a little after, I was like, “okay, this is what I do. This is what I’ve been doing for the last six months playing domestic cricket.” So, it was pretty simple to calculate everything,” he added.

Parag now has 181 runs in three innings at an average of 181.00, with two unbeaten innings and a highest score of 84* with a strike rate of 160.17.