Mumbai: Skipper Sanju Samson slammed a brilliant 119 in 63 balls but his sensational knock wasn't enough to take his side Rajasthan Royals over the line against Punjab Kings in a high-scoring encounter here on Monday. Chasing a humongous target of 222, Samson belted Punjab bowlers all over the park and did everything right till final ball when he got out in the pursuit of 5 runs. Speaking of his blistering innings and on the last over demanding 13 runs, Samson said, "I couldn't do anything better than that (final ball), I thought I had timed it well...I'm proud of how the team played but would have been good if we had won." Samson blasted 12 fours and 7 sixes in a match where's he captaining for the first time.
With 5 runs required off the final two balls, Chris Morris who was at the other end was denied the strike by Samson who went for a six but holed out to deep extra cover leaving his side 4-runs short of a magnificent win in a game where over 400 runs were scored.
RR had a bad start as they lost their power-hitting all-rounder Ben Stokes to Mohammed Shami in the first over of the innings. Manan Vohra was also sent back early, leaving RR reeling at 25 for two in the fourth over.
Earlier, despite early exit of opener Mayank Agarwal, a solid 105 run partnership between skipper KL Rahul and Deepak Hooda helped Punjab Kings pose a target of 221/6 to Sanju Samson's Rajasthan Royal during the fourth match of the of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League 2021 being played at the famous Wankhede Stadium.
Speaking of the batting unit of first innings, star opener, captain KL Rahul returned to the mega sporting event with double the energy. He managed to impress the fans with a strong score of 91/50 including 7 'FOURs' and 5 'SIXs'.
KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal as usual started as openers for Punjab Kings with initial deliveries by Chetan Sakariya for Rajasthan Royals. Mayank Agarwal opened his account with a cracking first-ball four towards backward point off young pacer while the Captain smashed a four off the final ball towards the fine leg boundary, concluding the over with good 10 run, including two fours. The openers continued with the run rate but Agarwal (14/9) fell for an outside edge.
His early exit alarmed Punjab squad but Gayle-Rahul partnership managed to rebuild. West Indies star player Cris Gayle put up a decent show for cric buffs contributing solid 40 off 28 balls (including 4 'FOURs' and 2 'SIXs') before being dismissed by Riyan Parag, with catch credits to none other than Stokes.
Later batsman Deepak Hooda joined Rahul and rocked the evening. Hooda alone hit 64 runs off 28 deliveries, with 4 'FOURs' and 6 'SIXs'.
Speaking of the ball unit from the first half of the contest, young seamer Chetan Sakariya stood exceptioanally this evening. He first dismissed opening batsman Mayank, giving Royals an early breakthrough. The young bowler later forced KL Rahul and Jhye Richardson in his first IPL match. Riyan Parag too performed well taking Gayle's wicket while
Shreyas Gopal and Mustafizir failed badly as they poured 40 and 30 runs in their 3-assigned overs. The Royals need to buck-up with their batting order now in order to secure victory if their opener match.