Sanju Samson reveals Jos had a small injury, he got injured while fielding and was getting stitches

Jos Buttler was unable to open the batting for Rajasthan Royals against Punjab Kings due to an injury sustained while fielding during the end of the first innings but the Royals decided to hold back Devdutt Padikkal, a regular opener, to face the spinners and the England limited-overs captain was getting some stitches to his finger.

Jos Buttler was unable to open the batting for Rajasthan Royals against Punjab Kings due to an injury sustained while fielding during the end of the first innings. 

The Royals decided to hold back Devdutt Padikkal, a regular opener, to face the spinners and the England limited-overs captain was getting some stitches to his finger. This move, however, did not quite work to the Royals’ benefit as Padikkal largely struggled during his 26-ball 21 which killed the momentum. 

Despite losing three wickets during the power play, the Royals managed to score 57 runs. They scored 32 runs in the next four overs (7–10), but only 35 runs came from overs 11–15, bringing the team’s total to 124/6.

“Jos had a small injury, he got injured while fielding and was getting stitches. The physio wanted some time, which wasn’t there to finish the stitches and then go out to open them. The thinking of sending Ashwin (to open) and holding everyone back, thinking to hold Devdutt Padikkal in the middle overs was to especially face the spinners they had. They had a leg-spinner and a left-arm spinner bowling in the middle overs. Padikkal, a left-hander batting in the middle and getting a couple of sixes, was the planning,”

reasoned Royals’ skipper Sanju Samson.

“Yes, I think it’s very important in games like this, where the momentum shifts away from you. We started well; we finished the power play well. I think in the middle (overs) we were expecting to get those boundaries here and there. (But) they bowled well, two, and three (tight) overs together. That’s where the momentum went a bit down. But we did well to get so close. A couple of fours here and there, I think we just fell short of a six, just one ball hit away,”

he said about the outcome of the game.

That the Royals came close was due to Shimron Hetmyer’s 18-ball 36 and debutant Dhruv Jurel, who entered as an Impact Player and scored an unbeaten 32 off 15, although his knock went in vain. Speaking about Jurel, Samson elaborated on his growth with the Royals.

“That’s how we work as a franchise. He has been with us for the last two seasons. He was playing a lot of domestic games. What we do as a franchise, we tend to have camps just before the IPL. People, who play domestic cricket, keep on coming to our academies. We did about five to seven camps a week each throughout the year. We did it in Nagpur, Jaipur, Chennai, Bangalore, and almost everywhere. We made sure that people like Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, and all these guys get enough practice.

Our team management, especially Zubin Barucha (Director of High Performance) put in lots and lots of hours in making someone like Dhruv Jurel come and bat the way he did in his first game, playing international bowlers in this pressure situation. That says a lot about him and we are very hopeful he comes again and wins us a few games,”

added Samson.

The Royal’s bowlers had to deal with the dew element in addition to a surface that was conducive to batting. Yuzvendra Chahal and KM Asif gave up runs, with the latter giving up 54 runs from his four overs without taking a wicket, whereas R Ashwin and Jason Holder did a decent job.

“Coming here, looking at the history, we expected it to be a high-scoring game – with the small boundaries, a good batting wicket, and dew coming on. We were expecting the dew in the second innings but I think the dew was right after the power play in the first innings. The mindset of our bowlers can make a huge difference here. You can think about using the wicket a bit more and using the speed of the ball. We learn from this game and come back better in the next game,”

said Samson.

While coming to the defense of Asif, Samson also said they can learn from the way Sam Curran operated despite the dew:

“Someone like Asif, who is playing his sixth or seventh IPL game (fifth), it’s very important to back him. We are looking at our Indian pacers who can bowl in the middle (overs) and the death, and the power play. It’s not an easy job, with the dew and the kind of batsmen. He should learn from that and come back much better in the next game. We could see how Sam Curran bowled with the dew, taking his time…he could have bowled much better but we have to look at other factors as well.”