Sanju Samson’s century goes in vain as Punjab Kings win by 4 runs

Sanju Samson vs PBKS 2021
Sanju Samson plays a shot against Punjab Kings

The rebranded Punjab Kings won their season opener in the 2021 Indian Premier League season as KL Rahul’s men beat Rajasthan Royals by 4 runs.

Sanju Samson won the toss in his first match as IPL skipper and asked the Kings to bat first on a batting-friendly pitch at the Wankhade Stadium.

Mayank Agarwal was dismissed cheaply by debutant Chetan Sakariya after a quick innings of 14 runs off 9 balls at the top. Chris Gayle came in at No.3 and scored quickly as he put on 40 runs off 28 balls scoring four boundaries and two maximums. The ‘Universe Boss’ was sent back to the pavilion by Riyan Parag in the tenth over paving way for Deepak Hooda to come to the crease.

Hooda and Rahul put on a 105-run partnership in just 46 balls as the spin duo of Shreyas Gopal and Rahul Tewatia failed to stop the run flow in the middle overs. Hooda scored 64 runs off 28 balls scoring four boundaries and six maximums in his blistering innings before getting dismissed by Chris Morris.

KL Rahul celebrating his half-century against Rajasthan Royals

KL Rahul celebrating his half-century against Rajasthan Royals

Skipper KL Rahul played the anchor role till the last over and put 91 runs on the board off just 50 deliveries scoring seven fours and five sixes as Punjab scored a total of 221 runs which proved too much in the end for the Royals. The 22-year old debutant Sakariya was impressive with the ball for Rajasthan as he took 3 wickets and gave away only 31 runs completing his maximum quota of four overs.

The new-look opening pair of Manan Vohra and Ben Stokes failed to fire as the Englishman was dismissed for a duck by Mohammed Shami. By the fourth over, Vohra was back in the pavilion as well after scoring just 12 runs in 8 balls as he fell victim to Arshdeep Singh.

Jos Buttler, Shivam Dube, and Riyan Parag got dismissed in their twenties trying to accelerate as Sanju Samson saw the procession of his batting partners from the other end.

Samson was the last man standing till the last ball as his magnificent innings of 119 runs off 63 balls took the match to the last ball and got Samson the ‘Man of the Match’ award but didn’t gift Rajasthan a win in their first match of the IPL 2021 season. The Kerala-born player scored 12 boundaries and 7 maximums almost re-writing the history books with his quick-fire century.

Arshdeep Singh (3/35) and Mohammed Shami (2/33) were the only two bowlers to shine on the night for Punjab as Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith failed to stop the run-flow with Murugan Ashwin leaking runs as well.

Punjab Kings will look to keep the momentum going against Chennai Super Kings on Friday while Rajasthan Royals will be looking for their first win of the season against Delhi Capitals on Thursday.

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