Sanju Samson played a heroic knock of 119 on his captaincy debut but still couldn’t stop Punjab Kings from registering a beautiful 4-run win over Rajasthan Royals in Match 4 of the Indian Premier League 2021 in Wankhede Stadium Mumbai on Monday.
A high-scoring game of this season saw Rajasthan fall short of a massive target of 222 at the Wankhede Stadium as they were restricted to 217 for 7 by Punjab, with superb bowling performances from Arshdeep Singh and Jhye Richardson to stop their opponents.
In the second innings, Rajasthan struggled with the start when Ben Stokes was dismissed off the third ball in the first over by Mohammed Shami with the team didn’t score a single run. Second opener Manan Vohra, playing his first match for RR, also got out cheaply for 12 before Samson, Jos Buttler, and Shivam Dube brought them back in the game.
RR vs PBKS, IPL 2021: Highlights
Jos Buttler and Shivam Dube played small innings of 25 and 23 respectively while Samson was playing a responsible innings and kept the match alive by scoring his 14th IPL fifty and first as the skipper. The match got close as Rajasthan needed 48 from the final 4 overs, a period of play where PBKS were worst in IPL 2020.
SANJU SAMSON SETS NEW RECORD
Samson brought up his 3rd IPL hundred off 54 and kept getting the big shots with success even as his partner was not surviving in the wicket. With 13 needed from the final over, Rahul called Arshdeep for Final Over, who managed 0, 1, 1, 6, 0, and Samson’s wicket in the final ball to win the match for Punjab.
Samson’s score was the highest-ever by a Rajasthan batsman and the highest by a batsman on captaincy debut in IPL history. He is also the second Indian after Indian skipper Virat Kohli to score more than 2 hundred in the competition. And the first batsman to score a century in the new season of IPL 2021.
The Punjab bowlers Mohammed Shami and Arshdeep Singh took 2 early wickets, which made difficulties to Rajasthan batsman in the first half of the second innings.
KL Rahul continues his form and leads from the front
Earlier, Punjab losing the toss and were asked to bat first by Rajasthan skipper in Mumbai, scored a 221 for 6 on the board with superb knocks from KL Rahul (91), Deepak Hooda (64), and Chris Gayle (40) to reach a total which is 40 runs more than the average score at this stadium.
Rahul’s fifty was his 22nd in IPL while Hooda scored his 3rd half-century.
Chetan Sakariya, making his IPL debut, bowled beautifully and took 3 wickets for 31 runs from his 4 overs while Chris Morris, the costliest buy in IPL history, picked up a couple for the Royals.
Rajasthan Royals will look at this match as a positive sign and come out with a fresh mind in their next game against Delhi Capitals in Mumbai on April 15 while Punjab Kings will next face Chennai Super Kings at the same venue on April 16.
Brief Scores: Punjab Kings 221/6 [KL Rahul (91), Deepak Hooda (64), Chetan Sakariya (3/31)]beat Rajasthan Royals 217/7 [Sanju Samson (119), Riyan Parag (25), Arshdeep Singh (3/35)] by 4 runs