New Delhi: Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer scored stunning fifties to chase 178 against Gujarat Titans and took Rajasthan Royals to victory after being 55/4 in 10.3 overs. It was the three consecutive sixes by Samson to Rashid Khan that changed the course of the game and the two batters could chase it down from there. Director of cricket for RR, Kumar Sangakkara lauded skipper Samson for his taking on Rashid.
After the game, former wicketkeeper-batter Sangakkara addressed the team in the dressing room. Appreciating the efforts by the team he gave special mention to Sanju Samson and said that the 13th over was the game changer. He said that some consider him to be the best T20 spinner in the world and he was taken off guard.
Sangakkara even said that when Sanju Samson is ‘in the game’ it does not matter if it is Rashid, Shane Warne or Muttiah Muralitharan bowling to him. His remarks were followed by claps and cheers from teammates.
Rashid Khan picked two quick wickets to push RR back but in the 13th over, Samson drove the ball for a six at long-off, the next ball Rashid went short and got pulled for a six and with another short ball, he got hit for a big one over deep midwicket.
Samson scored 60 off 32, hitting 3 fours and 6 sixes before Noor Ahmed picked him as his maiden IPL wicket. Hetmyer stood till the end and scored 56* off 26 to finish things off. The West Indian batter got support from Dhruv Jurel, who scored 18 off 10 and Ravichandran Ashwin who hit a six and a four before getting out on the third ball.
Indian pacers were economical for GT and Mohammed Shami picked three wickets while Hardik Pandya got one, but could not restrict RR.
In the first inning, Shubman Gill scored 45 off 34 and David Miller scored 46 off 30 to take GT to a fine total. They got support from Abhinav Manohar, who blasted 27 off 13 in the end. Sandeep Sharma bowled well and ended up with 25/2 while Trent Boult, Adam Zampa and Yuzvendra Chahal picked a wicket each.
