Rajasthan Royals’ skipper Steve Smith has heaped praises on Sanju Samson for his stupendous knock against Chennai Super Kings in their IPL 2020 opener. A thunderous knock by Samson of 74 runs off 32 balls including nine sixes and one four gave Rajasthan a superb start to the game where they made 216 runs. RR skipper Steve Smith also played an important inning of 69 runs.
CSK had won the toss and chose to bowl first at the Sharjah International Stadium. Faf du Plessis was the only big scorer for the Chennai based side, making 72 runs off 37 balls. However, they could only make 200 and fell short of 16 runs. The Chennai based side have played two matches in the IPL 2020 now, winning and losing one each.
Sanju Samson, looked like everything he hit went for six: Steve Smith
The game between CSK and RR was a sixes galore, also acknowledged RR skipper Steve Smith. Jofra Archer hit four sixes in the last over, Samson hit nine sixes in his inning and Smith was impressed by the duo. For CSK MS Dhoni and Faf du Plessis played some big shots. Smith said Sanju was absolutely incredible and he just had to give him the strike to run rampage.
“I think the last surge from Jofra was an incredible bit of hitting. Sanju Samson, looked like everything he hit went for six. MS smacked a few in the end, and Faf got going too, but nice to get a Win front of the RRs. Sanju was incredible, and all I had to do was give him the strike. This should give him a lot of confidence,” Smith told in a post match interview.
Jos Buttler to play as an opener for RR on returning, confirms Steve Smith
England wicket-keeping batsman Jos Buttler missed the IPL opener for RR to comply with the quarantine rules on his travel from England on September 17. Skipper Steve Smith says it’s hard for someone of his quality to take away the opening slot from.
“Jos is a quality player and we’ll see what happens when he comes back. Hard to take the opening slot away from someone like him,” said Smith.
Smith said the RR bowlers had to see to avoid getting hit in the straights as they were playing in Sharjah which is considerably a small ground. He appreciated the leg spinners’ bowling perfect lengths and told he was looking forward to playing at the Dubai International stadium which is comparatively bigger to Sharjah.
“It was important for the bowlers to avoid straight hits, and it was important to make him hit the back of a length. The leg-spinners were very good with their lengths – good on them. Dubai is a lot bigger, and I haven’t trained there, I just got here. So hopefully the boys are ready for it. We’re looking forward to it,” smith concluded.
RR are set to face KXIP in their next match of IPL on Sunday, in the same ground of Sharjah.