If the selection committee is mulling over the hotly-contested wicketkeeper-batter spot for the upcoming T20 World Cup, then Sanju Samson has definitely thrown a tough challenge at them. The Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain came up with another promising knock on Saturday night, guiding his team to a clinical 7-wicket win against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Ekana Stadium. It was RR’s 8th consecutive successful run chase in the IPL that let them retain their top spot on the tally with 16 points and inch closer to the knockouts.
In a league of colossal totals, LSG mounted 196 after KL Rahul’s valiant 76 off 48 balls and Deepak Hooda’s first fifty this season. But once their partnership was broken, the hosts lost their batting pace and were eventually restricted to a total which didn’t suffice to threaten the red-hot Royals.
Rajasthan’s chase was neatly divided into two halves. The first chunk saw the openers – Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler firing all cylinders to add 60 runs for the first wicket in Powerplay. The second half featured a Sanju Samson show with Dhruv Jurel joining him after Riyan Parag fell prey to Impact Player Amit Mishra.
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While Rahul still is the favourite to become Rishabh Pant’s understudy as the second gloveman at the T20 World Cup, Samson did hit four classy sixes, including the winning one in a chase of 197, to keep himself in the discussion for that US-bound flight.
Samson was at his fluent best and the way Jurel backed him with his maiden fifty this season, there was never a scoreboard pressure on the Royals. The captain scored an unbeaten 71 off 33 balls, with 7 boundaries and 4 sixes while his partner gave a salute to his parents seated in the stands after notching a fifty off 31 deliveries. Their unbeaten 121-run partnership for the 4th wicket took the Royals to the shore with 6 balls to spare.
Earlier, KL Rahul (76) dug deep with Deepak Hooda (50) as Lucknow Super Giants managed a competitive 196/5 against Rajasthan Royals. Rahul and Hooda gave LSG a solid footing with a 62-ball 115-run stand for the third wicket after early blows, but the failure of others meant the hosts could not capitalise on the hard work of the two.
Rahul’s 48-ball 76 with eight fours and two sixes was his fourth fifty of the season while Hooda banished his poor string of scores to make his first big score this IPL. Sandeep Sharma was the most successful bowler for RR, returning with figures of 2/31.
(With Agency Inputs)
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