By K Aditya
Dubai, Sep 27 (UNI) Rajasthan Royal's captain Sanju Samson continued with his fine form at the ongoing IPL 2021 with an 82-run knock, helping his side post 164/5 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the first innings, here on Monday.
The 26-year-old right-handed batsman hit seven 4s and three 6s during his firework-filled 57-ball innings while Siddharth Kaul shone for SRH with a bowling figure of 2/36.
Opting to bat first, Rajasthan Royals were pushed to the backfoot by pacer Bhuvneswar Kumar (1/26), who dismissed Evin Lewis (6 runs off 4 balls) at the beginning of the second over.
In at no. 3, captain Samson didn’t let the fall of wicket get under RR’s skin by quickly adding 49 runs in the powerplay with Yashasvi Jaiswal. The partnership, laced with seven boundaries and a maximum, saw the duo add 57 runs for the second wicket before Jaiswal (36 off 23) got clean bowled by Sandeep Sharma (1/30) in the ninth over.
RR suffered a further setback when 10 runs later the pink-clad outfit were 77/3 (10.1 overs) with newly-in Liam Livingstone getting dismissed by Rashid Khan. Samson, who was not out at 25 at this stage, took charge of RR innings with Mahipal Lomror, who was happy to play second fiddle in the 84-run stand.
After seeing out initial pressure, Samson did the bulk of the scoring with 41 runs coming between the 14th and the 17th over. The 16th over proved to be the costliest with Samson firing 20 runs off it, including two sixes.
However, SRH bowlers did manage to do some damage control by giving away just 21 runs in the last three overs.
Kaul ended the fourth-wicket partnership in the final over by removing Samson at 82 and struck again by dismissing Riyan Parag (0 off 1). Lomror remained not out till the end with a contribution of 28-ball 29.
UNI KKD GK 2236