Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson believes mistakes are an essential part of T20 cricket and they will have to stick to their process despite having a dream run in the ongoing Indian Premier League. Rajasthan defeated Lucknow Super Giants by seven wickets on Saturday to take their points tally from nine matches to 16. Former champions RR are having a dream season with eight wins and are at the top of the points table.
“We have been a bit lucky too. We have to stick to the right processes. In T20 cricket, mistakes are bound to happen and we reiterate that we have to stick to the process. The results are coming our way so it is clear that we are doing something right,” Samson said during the post-match presentation ceremony.
Samson, who was named Player of the Match for his unbeaten 71 off 33 balls while chasing 197, praised his bowlers for restricting LSG below the 200-run mark.
“There was a buy with the new ball and when the ball got old it was a nice wicket to bat on. It was a really good team performance. The guys coming in and bowling the crucial overs, that's important too. They know what we have to do per ball, there is a lot of planning behind the scenes and we are doing well.
“At the beginning and at the end (we bowled well). In the middle overs they took the game away from us a little bit,” he said.
Samson also praised Dhruv Jurel for his unbeaten 52 off 34 balls as the wicketkeeper-batsman finally got his form back.
“Form is temporary and batting at number 5 is the toughest job in T20 cricket. A youngster like him (Jurel) has the composure as we have seen in Tests. We believed in him, he has already batted once in the nets or two hours and we knew it was just a matter of time (before he gave birth).
A disappointed LSG skipper KL Rahul, meanwhile, felt his side was about 20 runs short.
“We left about twenty points behind. We didn't get an ideal start, but the partnership between me and Hooda (115 points) was great. In these types of matches, the set hitter had to score almost a hundred points after getting to 50-60,” said Rahul.
“We were 150 after about 15 overs, we should have taken advantage of it a little more. Obviously the team with more sixes wins in the end. We tried to hit our sixes but today we had to change our approach after those two early wickets ,” he said.
“If Hooda had persevered and scored another 20 points, and I had 20 more, we would have finished around 220. That would have been the difference, that's the 20 points we left behind.” Rahul said it is important that batters give extra cushion to bowlers in this IPL.
“We see in every match how important it is to give the bowlers that extra cushion because they are under the pump. Everyone likes to hit from distance and hit it all over the park, we are no different. It makes part of the preparation,” he said.
“Our big hitters are Stoin (Marcus Stoinis) and (Nicholas) Pooran, who can hit those big shots. The other guys like us are trying to pick our areas and time the shots better,” he added.
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