RR captain Sanju Samson rued their batter’s failure against SRH spinners in the middle overs after Rajasthan suffered a 36-run loss to Hyderabad in Qualifier 2 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 on May 24. Samson believes that RR lacked batting options against the SRH spinners like Shahbaz Ahmed (3/27) and Abhishek Sharma (2/24), who halted RR batters’ run flow with their match-winning spells respectively.
Despite a strong start by RR opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, none of the following batters gave the required support at the crease to the 22-year-old. RR batters were majorly ineffective against the SRH spinners, which saw them go down from 65 for 2 in 7.5 overs, to 92 for 6 by the end of the 14th over. Although RR received a late boost from Dhruv Jurel with his 56 off 35 balls knock, it still saw the side lose the match by a massive 36 runs.
IPL 2024, SRH vs RR, Qualifier 2: Highlights
Speaking post-match, Samson reflected on his side’s faults in the game and also took out the positives from their overall IPL 2024 campaign.
“It was a big game. I am really proud of the way we bowled in the first innings. We were found short of options in the middle overs against their spin, that’s where we lost the game. It’s very hard to guess actually when we are expecting some dew or when we are not. The wicket started behaving differently in the second innings, the ball started turning a bit, they used that advantage really well,” Samson said.
“They bowled their spin in the middle overs against our right-handed batsmen, that’s where they were one-up against us. Against their left-arm spin, when the ball was stopping, we could have tried a bit more reverse-sweep or maybe use of the crease a bit more. They also bowled really well,” Samson added.
With this win, SRH have booked their place in the IPL 2024 final against KKR on May 26, also setting up a rematch of the Qualifier 1 clash which saw the Pat Cummins-led side lose emphatically by 8 wickets and 38 balls left in the game.
Source Agencies
