It isn’t often that one sees Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan being taken apart by batters. In the match between Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals, Sanju Samson took Rashid to the cleaners, smashing three consecutive sixes against him in a single over. One of the cleanest hitters, Samson displayed his attacking prowess at full capacity, leaving arguably the finest spin bowler in the world rattled. Courtesy of Samson’s exploits, Rajasthan Royals went on to chase down the target of 178 runs against the Titans with 4 balls to spare.
Rajasthan looked in trouble after losing four batters for just 55 runs. However, skipper Samson wasn’t willing to let things slip by. The wicket-keeper batter took charge from the word go, registering a 60-run knock from just 32 balls with the help of 3 fours and 6 sixes.
Attack MODE ! @IamSanjuSamson took on Rashid Khan & how
Watch those SIXES #TATAIPL | #GTvRR | @rajasthanroyals
Follow the match https://t.co/nvoo5Sl96y pic.twitter.com/0gG3NrNJ9z
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 16, 2023
Later, it was Shimron Hetmyer who finished off the chase for his side with an unbeaten knock of 56 runs off 26 balls.
After the match, Samson shed light on his team’s triumph against Hardik Pandya’s men.
“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.
“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,” he said.
With the win, the Royals have gone top of the IPL 2023 standings with 4 wins in 5 matches.
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