Lifting your bat to soak in the applause is always the most satisfying result for any batsman, and it’s particularly more so when it comes when you’re making your debut as the captain of your IPL franchise and mostly so when you almost manage to do it in a record-breaking run chase. Keeping aside the outcome of the game for a minute, raise your hats in appreciation for Kerala’s Sanju Samson!
He won the toss in his debut appearance as captain for the Rajasthan Royals, who he has been representing in the Indian Premier League since quite a few seasons now. We were just 4 days into the IPL 2021 season and the newly renamed Punjab Kings scored a whopping 221/6 in their quota of 20 overs on Monday, 12 April 2021 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Looking at such a daunting target, it’s never psychologically easy to go about a chase in tough conditions. It became even tougher for Samson who walked out to bat at 0/1 when his star overseas batsman Ben Stokes got out just three balls into the start of the chase. Manan Vohra soon departed in the fourth over and this became an even steeper hill to climb at 25/2, but captain Samson kept cool.
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He’s often been regarded as one of the brightest young talents of Indian cricket and Samson proved it yet again today in RR’s first game of the IPL 2021 season. He stitched together a small partnership with Jos Buttler and another small but quickfire one with Assam’s Riyan Parag. As the chase went on and he kept taking it deeper, Sanju brought up his third IPL century, with centuries in IPL 2017 and IPL 2019 as well.
Sixes are always seen aplenty at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and it was raining sixes off the bat of Sanju Samson as well, hitting 7 maximums and 12 fours in this mammoth effort for the Royals. Needing 13 runs off the final over, Arshdeep Singh ran in to bowl and kept his calm as the first three deliveries went for two runs, with the target then getting to 11 runs in 3 balls.
What followed was a six over extra cover, bringing the equation down to 5 runs in 2 balls. With Chris Morris at the other end, one would imagine Samson would allow his partner to get a hit but he refused a run off the penultimate ball, as Morris ran to the batter and came back. There was an easy run or maybe even two there but the captain took a call of finishing this himself, with 5 needed in 1 ball.
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He almost pulled off the unthinkable as he smashed it high into the night air over extra cover once again. It was timed well but unluckily, couldn’t cross the ropes, as Rajasthan fell short by 4 runs and Samson ended with an IPL career-best score of 119(63). It would’ve been a bittersweet day for Sanju who got his third entry into the list of all-time IPL centuries, but couldn’t get his team over the line.
With this effort, Samson became the first ever player to score a century in his debut outing as a captain in the IPL. Records flew all across as 438 runs were scored in 40 overs in this innings. At the end, Punjab Kings won by 4 runs and while KL Rahul smashed 91(50) earlier in the day and Arshdeep Singh bowled 3/35, Samson was awarded the MOM Award. For more updates on top IPL centuries, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
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