Rajasthan Royals skipper had a good day on the field, both as a batter and as a captain.

Sanju Samson scored 68 runs off 38 balls and hit 7 fours and 2 sixes during his knock. He was pristine in his strokeplay and relied more on his timing. His partnership with Riyan Parag helped Rajasthan Royals put up an above-par total of 196-3.

In the second innings of the match, he was proactive in his captaincy and rotated the bowlers well.

However, his decision to give Trent Boult just two overs in the match didn’t go down well with several cricket experts. R Ashwin bowled the 17th over, which went for 17 runs, and brought GT back into the match.

 

Sanju Samson’s captaincy masterclass that went unnoticed

But there was a moment when Sanju Samson’s captaincy masterclass went unnoticed. In the first ball of the 10th over, Kuldeep Sen bowled a ball which was short and wide outside off stump. Batter Matthew Wade went chasing for the ball but missed it.

Umpire Kumar Dharmasena gave it a wide straight away.

However, Sanju Samson was determined that the ball had taken the outside edge of the bat and went for the review. The replays suggested that theere was a big gap between bat and ball. So, the onfield decision stood and RR lost a review.

Soon after the decision was announced by the third umpire, the rain got heavier and players walked off the field. Sanju Samson had already spotted a few drops of rain at the start of the over. Gujarat Titans were inching closer to the DLS target, so the RR skipper decided to use the review to waste some precious seconds.

 

As a result, Rajasthan Royals went into the rain break ahead of the DLS target. However, his tactics went in vain as the play got started in a few minutes. Gujarat Titans needed 2 runs off the final ball. But Rajasthan Royals lost the match as Rashid Khan slashed a cut to the point boundary for a four to begin the celebrations in the Titans camp.