"We were just one hit away" - Samson

 

An injury while fielding towards the end of the first innings meant that Jos Buttler wasn't able to open the batting in Rajasthan Royals' chase against Punjab Kings. The England limited-overs captain was getting some stitches to his finger when R Ashwin came out to open, with the Royals deciding to hold back Devdutt Padikkal, a regular opener, to face the spinners. This move, however, did not quite work to the Royals' benefit as Padikkal largely struggled during his 26-ball 21 which sapped the momentum. The Royals had managed 57 in the powerplay, although they lost three wickets while doing so. In the next four overs (7-10), they got 32 while only 35 runs came from overs 11-15, with the team slipping to 124/6.

"Jos had a small injury, he got injured while fielding and was getting stitches. The physio wanted some time, which wasn't there to finish the stitches and then go out to open. The thinking of sending Ashwin (to open) and holding everyone back, thinking to hold Devdutt Padikkal in the middle overs was to specially face the spinners they had. They had a leg-spinner and a left-arm spinner bowling in the middle overs. Padikkal, a left-hander batting in the middle and getting a couple of sixes, was the planning," reasoned Royals' skipper Sanju Samson.

"Yes I think it's very important in games like this, where the momentum shifts away from you. We started off really well, we finished the powerplay really well. I think in the middle (overs) we were expecting us to get those boundaries here and there. (But) they bowled really well, two, three (tight) overs together. That's where the momentum went a bit down. But we did really well to get so close. A couple of fours here and there, I think we just fell short of a six, just one ball hit away," he said about the outcome of the game.


That the Royals came close was due to Shimron Hetmyer's 18-ball 36 and debutant Dhruv Jurel, who came in as an Impact Player and smashed an unbeaten 32 off 15, although his knock went in vain. Speaking about Jurel, Samson elaborated on the development process of the Royals.

"That's how we work as a franchise. He has been with us from the last two seasons. He was playing a lot of domestic games. What we do as a franchise, we tend to have camps just before the IPL. People who play domestic cricket, they keep on coming to our academies. We did about five to seven camps of a week each throughout the year. We did it in Nagpur, Jaipur, Chennai, Bangalore, almost everywhere. We made sure that people like Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag and all these guys get enough practice.

Our team management, especially Zubin Barucha (Director of High Performance) put in lots and lots of hours in making someone like a Dhruv Jurel to come and bat the way he did in his first game, playing international bowlers at this pressure situation. That says a lot about him and we are very hopeful he comes again and wins us a few games," added Samson.

The Royals bowlers, apart from having to counter a batting-friendly wicket, also had the dew factor to contend with. While R Ashwin and Jason Holder did a good job, Yuzvendra Chahal and KM Asif leaked runs, with the latter conceding 54 runs from his four overs without picking up a wicket.

"Coming here, looking at the history, we expected it to be a high-scoring game - with the small boundaries, a good batting wicket and dew coming on. We were expecting the dew in the second innings but I think the dew was right after the powerplay in the first innings. The mindset of our bowlers can make a huge difference here. You can think about using the wicket a bit more and using the speed of the ball. We definitely learn from this game and come back better in the next game," said Samson.

While coming to the defence of Asif, Samson also said they can learn from the way Sam Curran operated despite the dew: "Someone like Asif, who is playing his sixth or seventh IPL game (fifth), it's very important to back him. We are definitely looking at our Indian pacers who can bowl in the middle (overs) and the death, and the powerplay. It's not an easy job, with the dew and the kind of batsmen. He should learn from that and come back much better in the next game. We could see how Sam Curran bowled with the dew, taking his time...he could have bowled much better but we have to look at other factors as well."