Mumbai: Sanju Samson’s magnificent 119 went in vain as Punjab Kings beat Rajasthan Royals by four runs in their IPL match here on Monday.Put in to bat, Punjab Kings made 221 for six against Rajasthan Royals in their Indian Premier League match here on Monday.
K L Rahul top-scored with 91 off 40 balls while Deepak Hooda smashed 64 off 28.
IPL debutant Chetan Sakariya was the pick of the Rajasthan bowlers with three wickets for 31 runs in four overs.
Chasing the big target, Rajasthan Royals could score 217 for 7 in their 20 overs with Samson top-scoring with 119 from 63 balls. He hit 12 fours and seven sixes.
After registering a thrilling four-run win against Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Punjab Kings pacer Arshdeep Singh said that his side planned to bowl wide yorkers to Sanju Samson in the final over and it was good to see the plan paying off.
IPL is such a big stage and such a good league, you cannot write off any team. I do not have any special preparation, I just back myself. The support staff always tells me to back myself and keep things simple. I try to bowl what the captain wants me to, if you have bluff, then bluff the batter not the skipper, said Arshdeep during a virtual press conference. The field was set, the plan was to make Samson play wider, the plan was to bowl wide yorkers to Samson and if we executed that, it would have been harder for Samson to get under, he added.
When asked how hard it was to bowl with dew around, Arshdeep said: I guess every team practises bowling at the death with dew. I do not think there was that much dew, every team practises keeping dew in mind as toss is not in your control.
A relieved Punjab Kings skipper K.L. Rahul called on his batsmen to bat fearlessly just like Deepak Hooda after his team managed to see off a resilient Rajasthan Royals led by Sanju Samson.
Deepak Hooda’s innings was amazing. That’s the kind of batting we want to see as a team. We want to bat fearlessly and take down bowlers. We have a lot of power in our line-up but we have been slightly tentative. It is important for us to bat fearlessly. It is great to see boys trying to understand what we expect, said Rahul after the match. Hooda made 64 off 28 balls, his knock helping the team put up a big 221-run total.
While he praised his batsmen he did add that the bowlers were a bit inconsistent with their lengths and needed to pull up their socks.
Heart rate was high but I didn’t stop believing. We knew a couple of wickets would bring us back. Till the first 10-11 overs, we bowled well. It was close because we dropped a few sitters, including me. We batted really well and bowled well in patches. We weren’t consistent with the lengths but the bowlers will learn, he added.