Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on 2th April 2021 became the center of attraction for the passionate cricket lovers and sports enthusiast from all across the planet with an end to end finish of the fourth match of the season 14 of the Indian Premier League T20 tournament.
WinDaddy, exclusive review of the game has left nothing to chance to come out with granular details about the entire match.
Sanju Samson – 119 off 63 balls – scored a hundred on his Indian Premier League captaincy debut but couldn’t take Rajasthan Royals past the finish line, getting dismissed off the last of the match as his team lost to Punjab Kings by four runs. Rajasthan Royal looked very much in the game throughout as Samson brought the equation down to 5 runs off two balls. However, he refused to take a run on the second last ball after he had hit it to deep extra cover, which could have fetched them a run, even a double. Instead, he eyed a glory shot for six on the last ball, but holed out to deep extra cover as his side fell short by four runs.
Jofra Archer’s absence was telling for the Royals. Desperate to halt the flow of runs and get wickets, new captain Samson tried as many as eight bowlers but none could produce the desired result.
Poor fielding was also on display too, and the Punjab captain was its biggest beneficiary. In the seventh over, leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal created a chance but Ben Stokes at long off ended up grassing the catch. Gopal went wicketless, leaking runs at 13.33 per over.
Throughout the chase, till the moment he refused a run off the penultimate ball, Samson (119 off 63 balls; 12×4, 7×6) had kept his poise. Though he became the first debutant captain to score a century in IPL history, he could not take his team over the line as the Kings sneaked in a four-run victory.
RR tried their luck with the new opening pair of Ben Stokes and Manan Vohra, but in vain. The two departed within the first four overs with the scoreline teetering at 25/2. Samson soaked in the pressure and gave the team a hope of a happy ending, but ran out of support from the other end.
Earlier, put in to bat, Punjab Kings captain KL Rahul, the highest run-getter in the previous edition, made his intent clear once again as he slammed 91 off 50 balls (7×4, 5×6) while anchoring the innings.
Probably the only bright spot for RR on the field was left-arm swing bowler Chetan Sakariya, who made his IPL debut on Monday. Despite the Saurashtra pacer getting hammered for 10 runs in his first over, Samson called Sakariya for the second over. The risk was worth it, as he sent Mayank Agarwal packing. In his attempt to play a cover drive, Agarwal ended up edging a full-length delivery straight into the hands of the keeper.
WinDaddy belives that both the teams are a must watch in the season 14 as they have a capacity to play neck to neck, without any panic or paranoire.
