Jaipur: Things are certainly not going well for Rajasthan Royals (RR) in IPL 2025. After two back-to-back botched up run chased, the team has now been accused of match-fixing by Jaideep Bihani, convenor of the ad-hoc committee of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA).
This came after a two-run defeat against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) before a home crowd at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur a couple of days ago. RR were coasting at 156/2 in the run chase. Yashasvi Jaiswal and stand-in captain Riyan Parag were in the middle. They needed 25 runs from 18 balls but then Avesh Khan dismissed Jaiswal and Parag. In the final over, wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer and Shubham Dubey failed to score nine runs.
“Even a kid can say that the match against LSG was fixed by RR. How else can a team fail to chase down nine runs in the last over,” Bihani, the BJP MLA from Sri Ganganagar told News18 Rajasthan.
Many believe that Bihani’s accusation against RR has to do with the fact that the franchisee did not allow RCA to be a part of the management.
“The ad-hoc committee has been appointed by the state government in Rajasthan. It has been extended for a fifth time. We make sure all competitions take place without any issues. But then just as IPL came, the Zila Parishad took control of it. For IPL, the BCCI had first sent a letter to RCA, not the Zila Parishad. The excuse given by them and RR was that we don’t have an MoU with Sawai Mansingh Stadium. So what if there is no MoU? Aren’t you paying the Zila Parishad for every match?” he told the news channel.
RR are placed eighth on the points table with six losses from eight games. Their next match is against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on April 24 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Their next home fixture is against table-toppers Gujarat Titans (GT) on April 28.
RR will have to do without the services of captain Sanju Samson, at least for the RCB match, as he is yet to fully recover from an abdominal injury suffered during the run chase against Delhi Capitals.
“Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson is currently undergoing recovery and will remain at the team’s home base with select RR medical staff. As part of his ongoing rehab process, he will not be travelling to Bangalore for the upcoming match against RCB,” RR said in a statement.
