XtraTime Web Desk: This is the kind of match we want to see in the premier T20 league in the world. Kings XI Punjab vs Rajasthan Royals will be remembered for a lot of reasons. The batting, the fielding and a remarkable comeback!
Rajasthan Royals beat Punjab by 4 wickets. Chasing 224, Rajasthan had a very strong start but Rahul Tewatia’s knock slowed Rajasthan down. But what a comeback by him! 5 sixes in one over that changed the game for Rajasthan. He ended up scoring 53 of 31 balls. Jofra Archer then hit couple of sixes and won it for Rajasthan in the end. Rajasthan wouldn’t have reached to this total if there wasn’t a Sanju Samson. Samson scored 85 of 42 balls and the Steve Smith scored 50 of 27 balls which gave Rajasthan the chance to chase such a huge total.
Sanju Samson was definitely the Man Of The Match after his superb display of cricket. In the post match conference, Samson remained modest and said, “I have been hitting well from the last one year. I have been in the right frame of mind. Don’t see a change in my game. First of all I was fed up with myself. I was trying hard but things were not happening. Then I worked hard. I asked myself what do I need to achieve? I told myself I have 10 years of this wonderful game in me, and I have to give everything to these 10 years. My family is supportive of that. The power comes from genes. My father is a very powerful man”. This defines the strong character that Sanju Samson posses.
The winning captain Steve Smith was very happy with his team’s performance. He said, “That was some chase! Tewatia, that was some sort of display against Cottrell.”Smith went on to add, “We got an idea about the conditions here in the last game. It’s a small ground, we always thought if we have wickets in the shed we always have a chance.”
He appreciated Samson’s effort in the middle by saying, “Samson is hitting sixes at will at the moment. We saw in the nets that he was hitting the ball like he did in that over to Cottrell. Credit to him. Three sixes off Cottrell would have got us back in that game, that’s great self-belief.”
KL Rahul wasn’t disappointed after losing this match but keeps the sporting spirit alive. He said, “Look, this is T20 cricket, we have seen it so many years now, we did a lot of things right, lot of positives tonight, but such things do happen. The game keeps you humble all the time, I did think we had the game in our pocket.”
Rahul added, “Towards the end they batted well and put pressure on our bowlers. I back them to do the job, they have done well in the last two games, it’s OK to have one bad game. They will only learn from this and come back better.”
Rahul appreciated Samson and backed his bowlers saying, “Small grounds and the total doesn’t really matter. The bowlers are going the distance in this tournament so far, the teams are backing their batsmen to have a go at the death – Sanju Samson played superbly well and they deserve this win.”