In yet another close encounter on Sunday, Rajasthan Royals (RR) beat Gujarat Titans (GT) by three wickets to register their fourth victory of the season. Sanju Samson led RR to clinch a three-wicket win and avenge for last year’s final defeat. Samson led his team from the front and scored a magnificent half-century while chasing 178 runs.
Samson in his innings scored 60 runs off 32 balls with the help of three boundaries and six maximums. He was well supported by Shimron Hetmyer who scored 56 runs off 26 balls with the help of five sixes and two boundaries. Samson and Hetmyer helped RR to clinch an amazing victory as at one stage they were lagging by being restricted to 55-4. However, after the game RR head coach Kumar Sangakkara came up with special praise for the skipper.
In the dressing room, Sangakkara said, “Skipper, you not just got us through the powerplay but that Rashid Khan over, and then you kicked on from there, that was the game changer. Their best bowler, some say the best T20 spinner in the world, was completely caught off-guard. It just goes to show that when you’re in the game, anything is possible. Whether it’s Rashid Khan, Shane Warne, or Muralitharan. It doesn’t matter when we are in the game. We play the ball, not the man. Brilliantly done.”
“Will play him every day” – Harsha Bhogle backs Sanju Samson
After his amazing match-winning performance Sanju Samson got some backing from senior presenter Harsha Bhogle. Bhogle in a Tweet said that he will play Sanju Samson in the Indian T20I team every day. He said, “I would play Sanju Samson in the Indian T20 team every day.”
Meanwhile, this is RR’s fourth victory of the season and they are comfortably sitting at the top of the points table. They will now head to Jaipur to face KL Rahul’s Lucknow Super Giants on 19th April at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. On the other hand, this was the second consecutive defeat for defending champions at home and they will have to rethink the game plan. GT will have a week’s rest and then play Lucknow Super Giants on Saturday in Lucknow.
