Indian Premier League 2021
IPL 2021: SRH vs RR- Sanju Samson's heroics goes in vain as Rajasthan fail to capitalize
The Rajasthan Royals failed to capitalize on captain Sanju Samson's huge knock as SRH wins in a nail-biter
Rajasthan Captain Sanju Samson will look to guide his team past the Mumbai Indians with slender hopes of making it to the playoffs
Sanju Samson was on song as ripped through the SRH bowling unit with a surgeon's precision to massive 82-run knock that his team up perfectly for a convincing win. Samson timed his innings perfectly as he knew that his team's hopes were on his shoulders, especially with batters on the other end falling like dominoes. He initially went at a run a ball pace scoring 38 runs off 36 balls, as he looked to consolidate his innings before cutting loose.
He then shifted gears and played with a sense of freedom as he scored a whopping 44 runs in the next 21 balls. Samson did not care for the reputation of the bowlers as he smashed them all over the field with authority. It was a sight to see as the Royals captain gave us a batting masterclass. Unfortunately, the lack of support for Samson worked in favour of SRH as they were able to restrict RR to a lower total despite his heroics after brilliant death bowling by Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Rajasthan has to be at their very best if they need to have a chance at qualifying for the playoffs. Fortunately for them, their captain seems to be in the form of his life at the right time. It is now up to the team to offer him the support that he needs to guide them to the promised land.
"It was a decent score. The wicket was sticky, and they were bowling well. We could have got 10 or 20 more, actually. The last overs was the difference - you can say that. I wanted to keep going, but we kept losing one or two wickets. We got the target which we were aiming for after the time-out. We definitely need to work a lot on our batting and bowling. We need to be at our best with each and every ball. We need to lift our standards," said Sanju Samson in his post-match presentation.
SRH captain Kane Williamson understood the importance of the last couple of overs and heaped praise on his opposite number.
"Last two overs with the ball were critical. Sanju batted outstanding, and they were looking to score more, but we managed to close them into a par-ish total," said Williamson in his post-match presentation.
