Former and current cricketers reacted after Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson denied to take the single off the penultimate ball of the PBKS vs RR IPL 2021 match No.4 but failed to take his side over the line in Mumbai on Monday. Former India cricketers Sanjay Manjrekar, Snehal Pradhan, Mumbai Indians all-rounder James Neesham and RR director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara threw their weight behind Samson for his decision.
RR needed 5 off 2 balls when Samson slammed the fuller length delivery from Arshedeep Singh toward long-off but decided to turn down the single. Non-striker Chris Morris had almost reached the striker’s end but then was sent back by the RR captain as he decided to take matters in his own hands to finish off the game.
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But as it turned out, Samson sliced the last ball and was caught in the extra cover boundary as PBKS won the thrilling encounter by 4 runs.
Here is how cricketing fraternity reacted after Samson turned down the single and failed to close the match
“Greater possibility of Samson hitting a six in that form than new batsman in Morris hitting a four. Right call by Samson to keep strike last ball I thought,” tweeted Sanjay Manjrekar.
“Have no problem with Samson turning down that single. He would have backed himself to hit at least a four,” tweeted former India women cricketer Snehal Pradhan.
“I thought Sanju backed himself to get the job done. He early did, he was five or six yards short of hitting the last ball for a six and sometimes when you’re in form and you believe you can do it, you’ve got to take that responsibility and it was really encouraging to see Sanju do that. You can always talk about a missed single here or there but what matters to me his positive attitude. The next time, I believe he will hit it 10 yards further to win us the game,” said RR director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara in the post-match press conference after he was asked about the incident.
“Not necessarily. It’s whether you think Samson is more likely to hit a 6 than Morris is to hit 4 or 6. The way Samson was hitting it I can see why he would have confidence in himself. No wrong answer really,” tweeted Neesham replying to a fan.
Samson hit the highest score ever by a captain on his first match in the IPL. The talented wicketkeeper batsman smashed 119 off 63 balls with 12 fours and 7 sixes but in the end, the 222-run target set by PBKS riding on captain KL Rahul brilliant 91 was too much for the Royals.
