XtraTime Web Desk: Rajasthan Royal’s Sanju Samson produced an absolute cracker of an innings as he blazed his way to 74 off 32 deliveries against Chennai Super Kings at the Sharjah Stadium on Tuesday. The wicket keeper batsman from Kerala hit 9 sixes and 1 four at an amazing strike rate of 231.25. The 25 year old scored the joint second-fastest fifty for RR in the Indian Premier League (IPL). England’s Owais Shah has scored a fifty off 19 balls against RCB in 2012. Another Englishman Jos Buttler scored the fastest fifty for Rajasthan, registering a 18-ball half-century against Delhi Daredevils in 2019.
Samson walked in to bat at No 3 after the dismissal of India’s U19 cricketer Yashasvi Jaiswal in the third over. He started slow but launched himself against Sam Curran in the fifth over when he smacked the England all rounder for 14 runs, hitting a four and a massive six in the process. Using his strong upper body, the right-hander went berserk clearing the ropes with ease.
Samson was particularly devastating against the CSK spinners, taking them to the cleaners, especially the veteran Piyush Chawla. In the eighth over, Samson scored a 19-ball fifty after hitting Chawla for 28 runs with the help of Smith. He continued to torment both Chawla and Ravindra Jadeja, before being dismissed by Lungi Ngidi in the 12th over when RR was 132/2.
With over 2,200 runs from 94 IPL matches, Samson is a vital cog in Rajasthan Royals’ batting line-up. From a rookie to being a leader within the group, Samson has scored in excess of 340 runs in each of the previous three editions.
Sanju looked really happy with his knock as it helped his side to score more than 200 runs.“I had a really good time in the middle and hopefully we can win this. It was not a good wicket. It was slow and I had to wait for the ball, it was not easy to hit if they bowled it on a length. It is slow right now and hopefully we can capitalize on that, said Sanju. He also heaped praise on Rajasthan captain Steve Smith who also scored a half-century.” With our bowling line-up we are confident of defending this total. Absolute pleasure to bat with Smith, he is one of the world’s greatest batsman and when he goes out and bats 20 overs, it becomes easy for the others coming in,” added Sanju.