Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Sanju Samson said that he did not think that his bowlers will end up picking four-five wickets with the new ball against Mumbai Indians (MI) but credited the duo of Trent Boult and Nandre Burger for exploiting the conditions well.
RR beat Hardik Pandya’s MI by 6 wickets in their IPL 2024 clash at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday.
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“I think that (toss) was the game changer. I think it (pitch) was too sticky to start off, and the experience of Trent Boult and Nandre Burger’s speed upfront – we used it really well,” Samson said at the post-match presentation.
“He’s (Boult) playing international cricket since 10-15 years, and that is what we expected with the new ball. I didn’t expect (MI will be) 4-5 wickets down but that was a really great effort from them,” Samson added.
Boult returned figures of 3/22 and the Kiwi’s sensational spell of left-arm pace helped restrict hosts Mumbai to 125/9, a total RR overhauled with 27 balls to spare for their third win of the season in three matches.
Boult claimed three wickets including Rohit Sharma’s in the space of four deliveries across his first two overs to silence the home crowd. Boult got Rohit out caught behind on the fifth ball of his opening over and then trapped Naman Dhir LBW before a hat-trick was avoided in the next over but he sent back Dewald Brevis soon after.
Brevis was sent as impact substitute in place of Dhir but the move flopped.
Rohit, Dhir and Brevis – all three got out for a first-ball duck to Boult and another wicket by left-arm quick Burger made Mumbai slip to 20/4 inside four overs.
Burger had the left-handed Ishan Kishan caught behind with a nasty seaming delivery as the bowler leapt in the air in celebration.
Boult’s lethal opening burst giving way to Yuzvendra Chahal’s 3/11 with his leg-spin.
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Samson also praised the spin duo of Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin.
“We know we have really big individuals in our team but where we stand out is we recognise what the team demands, keep doing our role and move ahead. Having the likes of Ash (Ravichandran Ashwin) and (Yuzvendra) Chahal they just understood we had a good powerplay. The wicket was turning, it was slowing down but they never went for wickets. They kept it tight and the pressure gave us wickets,” Sanju said.
When asked about Chahal, Samson said: “I think he was really fired up for this IPL, and he’s been doing well for the past 2-3 years for us.”
In-form RR batter Riyan Parag hammered an unbeaten 54 off 39 balls for his second successive fifty as he steered the team to victory with two sixes and a four.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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