IPL 2021, RR vs DC Preview: Sanju Samson Provides Inspiration for Rajasthan Royals against Delhi Capitals

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Friday, 16th April 2021

A dispirited Rajasthan Royals will hope for another inspiring knock from new skipper Sanju Samson when they face a confident Delhi Capitals in an IPL match on Wednesday, coming off a heartbreaking loss and hit by star all-rounder Ben Stokes' injury-forced departure. Though DC got off to a great start under new captain Rishabh Pant, winning by seven wickets against Chennai Super Kings in their first match, RR were defeated by Punjab Kings by four runs in a high-scoring match on Monday night. With RR needing five runs from the last delivery and chasing a gigantic 222 for victory, Samson (119 off 63 balls) played a brilliant innings in his debut as captain but couldn't get his side over the line as he was dismissed in the final ball of the innings when going for a maximum.

The defeat devastated Samson, who had single-handedly held RR in the game by playing some lovely strokes during his blistering knock, which included 12 boundaries and seven sixes.

As if the defeat wasn't bad enough, RR was dealt another blow on Tuesday when Stokes broke his finger and was ruled out for the rest of the tournament. During the agonising defeat, he suffered the injury. In his absence, the onus will be on Jos Buttler, Shivam Dube, and Riyan Parag to deliver and provide enough support to their young skipper, who was sensational in the first match.

Manan Vohra (12), Buttler (25) Dube (23), and Parag (25) all got starts but failed to provide Samson with the required support. The success of RR's bowling unit is a big source of concern for the team's management. In their opener, the RR bowling machine seemed rusty and out of sorts.

All other RR bowlers went for runs and looked utterly clueless against opposition batsmen, with the exception of young Chetan Sakariya (3/31), who had a fantastic debut. Mustafizur Rahman, Chris Morris, Stokes, Shreyas Gopal, and Rahul Tewatia all went for huge runs and will have to quickly pull up their socks.

Last season's runner-up DC, on the other hand, had a flawless start to their campaign, defeating three-time champions CSK with ease. DC had chosen to field, allowing CSK to post a competitive 188 for 7, but Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw came within a whisker of the goal with a 138-run opening stand, laying the foundation for the win.

Both Dhawan (85 off 54 balls) and Shaw (72 off 38 balls) played their strokes from the start and appeared to be in full charge during their innings. Pant (15 not out) and Marcus Stonis (14) took care of the rest as DC cruised to victory with eight balls remaining. On the bowling front, Chris Woakes (2/18) and Avesh Khan (2/23) bowled well in the first game and will look to continue their good form on Thursday, but Ravichandran Ashwin, Tom Curran, Amit Mishra, and Marcus Stoinis bowled poorly and will be desperate to make amends.

Teams (From):

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (c & wk), Jos Buttler (wk), Ben Stokes, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Manan Vohra, Anuj Rawat, Riyan Parag, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Shreyas Gopal, Mayank Markande, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya, KC Cariappa, Liam Livingstone, Kuldip Yadav, Akash Singh.

Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Chris Woakes, R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Lalit Yadav, Pravin Dubey, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan, Steve Smith, Umesh Yadav, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod, Lukman Meriwala, M Siddarth, Tom Curran, Sam Billings.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

Sports NDTV