"I only played two balls but I'm drained as if I have scored a hundred. A lot of thoughts are going around," Sanju Samson had said while reflecting on Rajasthan Royals' (RR) impressive win over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Samson was cleaned up for a duck in RR's away game against MS Dhoni and Co. at the Chepauk.
The wicketkeeper-batter and leader of the Rajasthan-based franchise only managed to score 17 off 17 balls when RR hosted CSK in their backyard earlier this season. Extending his unimpressive run in RR's previous fixture, the Rajasthan captain only managed to score 14 off 10 balls against Mumbai Indians (MI) as the record-time winners registered a morale-boosting six-wicket win over the Men In Pink on Sunday.
Sharing his views about the recently concluded IPL 2023 match between RR and MI on YouTube, former Indian opener Aakash Chopra slammed Samson after the Rajasthan skipper failed to inspire the 2008 champions at the Wankhede Stadium. "Rajasthan is facing another trouble. Jos Buttler is not firing, as he usually does, this year. The start was very good but he has gone slightly down. Sanju Samson hasn't scored runs at all," Chopra said.
Averaging 23.56 in 9 matches of the cash-rich league, Samson has scored 212 runs for the 2008 champions. RR opener Jos Buttler also played a forgetful knock of 18 off 19 balls against Mumbai Indians. In a match where Buttler and Samson failed to fire for RR, opener Yashasvi Jaiswal shattered multiple records with his maiden century in the IPL. However, Jaiswal's knock went in vain as RR lost the match by 6 wickets. "So as good a team as they are, because they have (Shimron) Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel and Devdutt Padikkal as well, the team is good, but two main players not scoring runs, that's a problem," Chopra observed.
{{/usCountry}}Averaging 23.56 in 9 matches of the cash-rich league, Samson has scored 212 runs for the 2008 champions. RR opener Jos Buttler also played a forgetful knock of 18 off 19 balls against Mumbai Indians. In a match where Buttler and Samson failed to fire for RR, opener Yashasvi Jaiswal shattered multiple records with his maiden century in the IPL. However, Jaiswal's knock went in vain as RR lost the match by 6 wickets. "So as good a team as they are, because they have (Shimron) Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel and Devdutt Padikkal as well, the team is good, but two main players not scoring runs, that's a problem," Chopra observed.
{{/usCountry}}Chopra, who plied his trade with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) during his playing days, was also miffed at Samson for opting to bat first at Wankhede. "It was amazing that Rajasthan chose to bat after winning the toss. You don't do that in Mumbai. You want to chase in Mumbai because dew comes later and it is a chase-friendly ground, although Punjab won while batting first in the last game, but they didn't win the toss," he added.