Arshdeep held his nerve to consistently bowl at the blockhole, and that ultimately got PBKS a win as Samson was dismissed off the last ball.
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An IPL game is not often decided by two balls out of 240. However, that is exactly what went down in the fourth game of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between the Rajasthan Royals (RR) and the Punjab Kings (PBKS). RR skipper Sanju Samson played a dream knock as he became the first player to score a ton on his captaincy debut. However, it was all in vain, and probably due to Samson himself. RR required five runs from the last two balls. Samson played the first through the covers and could have taken a couple if he ran hard enough. However, he decided to send non-striker Chris Morris back, leaving himself no choice but to hit a maximum off the last ball. It was very similar to what Dinesh Karthik did to Bangladesh in the Nidahas Trophy final. But Samson could not do it. It looked like he had done it as the ball sailed through the air, only to be caught by Deepak Hooda.
Samson scored 119 runs off 63 deliveries. Apart from him, nobody in the Rajasthan side displayed a decent batting performance. Jos Buttler, Shivam Dube and Riyan Parag all made over 20 runs but they were all cameos. No one really stuck with the debutante captain to play the long game.
The Punjab bowlers, nonetheless, were taken to the cleaners. Arshdeep Singh was the most impressive of the lot, taking three wickets, including that of Sanju Samson. Mohammad Shami also contributed with a couple of wickets while Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith took one wicket each.
The first innings witnessed an absolute obliteration of the RR bowling attack by the PBKS batsmen. The top and middle-order fired on all cylinders. Captain KL Rahul stole the show with a humungous 91 off 50 deliveries. He was brilliantly supported by the Universe Boss Chris Gayle who scored 40 runs off 28 deliveries and Deepak Hooda who scored 64 runs off 28 balls.
Hooda’s unbelievable power hitting would bring a smile to any cricket lover’s face, unless they’re a Rajasthan Royals fan of course. The Punjab Kings ended their innings with the highest total so far in this year’s IPL 221. They are also the first team to cross the 200 mark.
The Royals bowlers were subjected to an extremely brutal reality check. Every single bowler, barring one, was smashed everywhere around the park. Mustafizur Rahman went for 45 runs, Chris Morris took a couple of wickets but gave away 41.
The only silver lining in the disastrous bowling performance was youngster Chetan Sakariya, who took three wickets for 31 runs off his four overs, and also took an exceptional diving catch. Sakariya dismissed Jhye Richardson, Mayank Agarwal and the dangerous KL Rahul. His catch dismissed Nicholas Pooran for a duck.
