Playing their IPL 2021 curtain-raiser against Rajasthan,
Punjab made a terrible start as Rahul and Co. parted ways with opener Mayank Agarwal in the 3rd over. However, the batting duo of Rahul-Gayle made sure that Punjab recovers from the early blow by dominating the Powerplay and registering a crucial 50-run stand. Though Gayle failed to notch up his half-century, the Windies legend became the first player to complete 350 sixes in the IPL.
Following Gayle’s departure, Rahul joined forces with Deepak Hooda as the duo laid the foundation of a challenging total. While Rahul top-scored with 91, Hooda slammed a crucial half-century to make sure Punjab set a massive 222-run target for Rajasthan.
[In reply, Royals lost Ben Stokes for cheap before Arshdeep Singh, Jhye Richardson removed Manan Vohra and Jos Buttler to give Rajasthan early setbacks in the Powerplays. Leading the Royals from the front, Samson delivered the goods on his maiden outing as captain. Samson scored the first century of the IPL 2021 and the RR skipper also became the first batsman to register a triple-digit score on his captaincy debut.
In the riveting clash, Samson refused to take a single on the penultimate ball when RR needed 5 runs to win the clash. Let’s how the Twitterati reacts to this decision of Sanju Samson.
broke every cricket fan's heart💔💔#SanjuSamson #RR #RRvPBKS #IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/UvYdrLiwuW
— Deepak kundan (@DeepakKundan10) April 12, 2021
Doesn't matter either RR won or lose the match, but this will be the when #SanjuSamson leave the stadium: #RRvPBKS pic.twitter.com/s1eKeq0zth
— ѕαrcαѕtíc_kαmαl❤🇮🇳 (@13Sarcastic) April 12, 2021
Sanju Samson won the man of the match, scored 119 runs while chasing 222 runs but lost the match by 4 runs – Harsha Bhogle said "Ian Bishop told, MOM should be Sanju Samson".#IPL2021 #RR @IamSanjuSamson @AnRRfan1 @rajasthanroyals @thotaayyappa019 @RockStranger2 @SHR_EY_7 pic.twitter.com/oIsmg36hgF
— THE REAL CRIC INFO (@RohanSatpati) April 12, 2021
Sanju Samson to Morris on 5th ball in the last over.#RR #RRvPBKS #RRvsPBKS #IPL pic.twitter.com/LyEOZqXHDQ
— Surya Kumar Yadav Fan Club (@Suryakumarfanp1) April 12, 2021
Greater possibility of Samson hitting a six in that form than new batsman in Morris hitting a four. Right call by Samson to keep strike last ball I thought.
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) April 12, 2021
Samson failed to hit the last-ball six as the ton-up skipper was removed by Arshdeep on the final ball of the 20th over. With the thrilling win, Punjab has kickstarted their campaign by bagging the two crucial points.
