Sanju Samson, fresh off a T20 World Cup for the ages, was the danger-man on debut for Chennai Super Kings. But he came up against a team that knows all about him, facing the team he used to captain in Rajasthan Royals, and was undone early as he had to walk back for 6 in the team’s season opener in Guwahati.
For a man who was enjoying a purple patch that saw him score 275 aggregate runs in his last three innings of the World Cup, it was a dismissal that set the tone for the game as RR went on to win by 8 wickets and with nearly eight overs to spare. And Samson’s wicket was no slice of luck: it was meticulously calculated, a game-plan working to perfection by containing his strengths.
RR captain Riyan Parag set a slightly unconventional field early on against Samson, with third man in the ring and a deep backward point fielder, placing the uber-athletic Ravindra Jadeja and Jofra Archer at each of these positions.
Speaking in the press conference after RR’s win, Parag said the team knew that region was Samson’s go-to scoring area early in his innings, and they wanted to prevent him from finding easy runs through there.
"It was the first three balls or first four balls [against Sanju] that we wanted to execute something. That kind of went well, so we went ahead with it,” said Parag.
{{/usCountry}}"It was the first three balls or first four balls [against Sanju] that we wanted to execute something. That kind of went well, so we went ahead with it,” said Parag.
{{/usCountry}}"We were just trying to target where he plays his first three to five balls. We set the fielders accordingly and asked him to hit a better shot or hit a different shot, which is, again, a gamble of sorts,” continued the young captain.
Game of percentages for Parag
Parag admitted that against a player like Samson, who has all the shots in the book, it is never a guarantee, but something that does nudge the numbers just a little bit back in the bowling team’s favour. By forcing a shot Samson has less success with early, RR produced the wicket as Nandre Burger succeeded in getting one to hold its line and hit the top of off-stump.
“But then that gives us a lot of percentage in our favour. The shot he got out to, we would have wanted him to hit that shot instead of bowling short to him and him pulling it, because he likes that. We just try to make decision-making a bit challenging for the batters,” said Parag.
For the RR captain, it was about taking the risks and enjoying the reward, with the knowledge that there will be times when it doesn’t work out: "We just try and execute. If it comes off, looks very good. If it doesn't come off and he gets hit for a few cuts, I'll be sitting here like a dumb duck.”
CSK have a lot of work to do, and their future opponents might have a template to work with now.