Last Updated on 4 years ago by Charbel Coorey
Cricket News: Good fight with the ball despite defeats – Sanju Samson | RR skipper said his team are fighting well
Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson lauded his teams’ energy and their bowling effort following a seven-wicket defeat against the Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday night.
Speaking after the game, Samson said: “It was a great effort (with the ball), we showed some real fight in the game and the energy was really amazing” as quoted by Royals’ official website.
The inaugural champions suffered their defeat in a row on Monday following a poor effort with the bat that saw them scrap their way past the 150-run mark.
In-form opener Jos Buttler once again played an unusual knock where he struggled for timing throughout. The Lancashire cricketer played 25 deliveries but could only manage 22 runs before getting dismissed by Tim Southee.
It didn’t help Rajasthan’s cause that skipper Samson wasn’t at his free-flowing best either. The 27-year-old did score a half-century (54 off 49 deliveries) but failed to up the tempo of the knock when needed.
It took a whirlwind 13-ball 27* from Shimron Hetmyer and a brisk 12-ball 19 from Riyan Parag to take their total to 152.
“It was a great effort (with the ball), we showed some real fight in the game and the energy was really amazing”
Sanju Samson
Rajasthan bowling attack made KKR work extremely hard for the target as the likes of Aaron Finch and Sunil Narine endured another failure.
Skipper Shreyas also struggled during his 32-ball 34 but an unbeaten 37-ball 48 from Nitish Rana and a whirlwind 42* (23) from Rinku Singh ensured that the two-time champions broke their five-match losing streak in the last over.
The Royals’ have now lost consecutive games to struggling teams and they will now look to get back on the winning track in their next fixture against Punjab Kings on May 7. It is now a critical match for the Royals after Punjab’s big win over Gujarat puts them close behind Samson’s team on the points table.
Written by Yash Mittal. Follow Yash on Twitter today.
