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When Rajasthan Royals lost its star openers by the fifth over, the dressing room may not have got fidgety. Sanju Samson was still there, after all. And he has this nice habit of beginning the IPL with an excellent innings.
The skipper’s unbeaten 82 (52b, 3×4, 6×6) proved good enough in the end for Royals to start their IPL 2024 campaign on a winning note.
The host, which made 193 for four after winning the toss, defeated Lucknow Super Giants by 20 runs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Sunday. This was Samson’s fifth consecutive fifty-plus score in the first match of an IPL season.
The track was a challenging one, and his team needed Samson to hold the innings together after the loss of Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
The in-form India opener, Jaiswal (24, 12b, 3×4, 1×6), fell to a Mohsin Khan bouncer. He could not get hold of his pull shot and gave a skier to mid-on.
Buttler had already been back in the dugout, falling to an superb low catch behind the stumps by K.L. Rahul off Naveen-ul-Haq. Samson reached the middle after that dismissal, off the last ball of the second over, and he stayed till the end of the innings.
Giving him company was Riyan Parag who made most of his promotion to No. 4 — his stunning form in domestic cricket as well as some good fortune — to hit 43 (29b, 1×4, 3×6). He added 93 for the third wicket with Samson, who paced his innings beautifully, while playing those handsome strokes of his.
Chasing a daunting target, LSG didn’t get the best of starts, as Trent Boult sent back Quinton de Kock and Devdutt Padikkal in his first two overs. When Impact Player Deepak Hooda (26, 13b, 2×4, 2×6) was dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal, the visitors slid to 60 for four.
But Rahul (58, 44b, 4×4, 2×6) and Nicholas Pooran (64 n.o. 41b, 4×4, 4×6) brought them back into the match with their 85-run partnership for the fifth wicket. Sandeep Sharma accounted for Rahul and his death bowling ensured there was no second life for LSG.
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