Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson believes the strategy to rotate bowlers helped them restrict Gujarat Titans to 177 after they registered a three-wicket win at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday. GT didn’t get off to a good start as they chugged to 42-2 after the end of the PowerPlay overs.
However, Hardik Pandya and Shubman Gill changed gears after six overs as the pair scored 30 runs in the next two overs. Gill scored 45 whereas Pandya added 19-ball 28 before he was dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal.
David Miller scored 46 but he was given a reprieve by Adam Zampa when he was on six. On the other hand, Sandeep Sharma was the pick of the bowlers for RR as he scalped two wickets and conceded only 25 runs in his four overs. Furthermore, the RR spin troika of Adam Zampa, Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal did a decent job for the team.
Subsequently, RR got off to a torrid start in the run-chase and they were soon reduced to 55-4 after 10.3 overs after the new ball moved both ways. However, Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer steadied the ship and scored 60 and 56 respectively to get their team over the line.
Sanju Samson said in the post-match presentation, “When you play quality opponents on a quality wicket, you get such games. Very happy to compete in such a game and come out on top. It was important to rotate our bowlers, they were playing some quality cricket and we had to respect that. The whole team came up well today and we could restrict them to around 170. The start we had, it shows how good a wicket this was.”
He added, “The new ball the quality of swing bowling was good and we had to respect that. But today Zampa coming was a way to match-up with the opponents. He was the match-up for Miller and almost got the wicket, but the catch was dropped. (On Hetmyer) He doesn’t like easy situations, we like putting him in such situations because he usually wins us games from such situations.”
RR was under the pump but Samson played a captain’s knock for his team. Shimron Hetmyer also added the finishing touches for the inaugural champions as he batted at his best.
Rajasthan Royals will next face Lucknow Super Giants at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium, Jaipur on Wednesday.
