Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson feels his bowlers did well to restrict Punjab Kings to 197 at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati, which hosted its first IPL match on Wednesday. PBKS went on to win the thrilling contest by five runs after fifties from Prabhsimran Singh (60) and Shikhar Dhawan (86) and a four-wicket haul from Nathan Ellis.
In fact, the visitors got off to a flying start as Prabhsimran Singh timed the ball to perfection and took the attack against the RR bowlers. Singh teed off from the word-go as PBKS raced to 63 runs in the PowerPlay overs.
Singh didn’t change his aggressive approach after the first six overs and completed his maiden IPL fifty off just 28 balls before getting out on 60. On the other hand, Shikhar Dhawan played an anchor role in the first phase of the innings before he changed gears.
Dhawan was 30 off 30 at one stage but scored the next 56 runs off 26 balls, making the most of his experience. At one stage PBKS looked well set to go past the 200-run mark but Ravichandran Ashwin and Jason Holder bowled tight spells.
Ashwin returned with figures of 1-25 in his quota of four overs whereas Holder conceded only 16 runs in the last two overs he bowled. The lanky West Indian not only conceded 29 runs in his allotted four overs but also scalped two wickets.
However, Rajasthan Royals fell short in the run-chase after a valiant effort from Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel, who both added 62 runs off just 27 balls.
Sanju Samson said in the post-match presentation, “To be honest, it was a very good track to bat on, not much movement with the new ball and they batted really well, had the momentum in the powerplay. Our bowlers used the variations on a high-scoring wicket and I thought we did well to restrict them to 197. Jos wasn’t fully fit (injured his finger while taking the catch), the thinking behind keeping Padikkal (in the middle order) was to tackle their two spinners in the middle overs.”
He added, “The coaches have put a lot of work behind him (on Dhruv Jurel), we had a work week camp before the IPL, but the way they have worked a lot of time in our academies (during off-season), having faced 1000s of balls and I’m happy with the way they’re progressing. I was expecting the dew to come in the second innings, but it was evident that it was there right at the start, need to be prepared better for such things in the next game.”
RR will next face Delhi Capitals at the same venue of Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati on Saturday.
