On the Sunday doubleheader, Royal Challengers Bangalore hosted Rajasthan Royals for their green match of the IPL 2018. RCB and RR have both won one game and lost one game in the IPL so far.
RCB captain Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to bowl first, as per tradition. RCB included Pawan Negi in place of Sarfaraz Khan, while RR went into the match unchanged. Ajinkya Rahane and D’Arcy Short opened the innings for RR, knowing that they needed to score big runs at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Short was short on his confidence from the start and was dismissed for 11 runs by Chahal. Rahane hurt his knee and went after the bowling. He made 36 off 20 balls with 6 fours and 1 six. Ben Stokes looked good for his 27 runs before Chahal bowled him.
However, Sanju Samson (92* off 45 balls; 2x4s, 10x6s) and Jos Buttler (23 off 14) propelled RR innings during the latter part with clean and proper hitting. Rajasthan Royals ended up making 217 in 20 overs for the loss of 6 wickets.
Sanju Samson, in particular, was unstoppable as he took every RCB bowler to the task, hitting an amazing 10 sixes in his innings.
Twitter was amazed at the way Sanju Samson created his innings and sang praises for him.
Here are some tweets:
Sanju Samson is an unbelievable player ... makes it look far too easy ... he is going to be a superstar .. @rajasthanroyals #IPL #India
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) April 15, 2018
Sanju ‘Smashing’ Samson #RCBvRR #IPL
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) April 15, 2018
Turning out to be a stunning knock by young Sanju Samson...
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) April 15, 2018
Samson is the most non violent six hitter you can hope to see #RCBvRR
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) April 15, 2018
Treat to watch @IamSanjuSamson ✅great timer of the cricket ball.. ???? @rajasthanroyals vs @RCBTweets @IPL
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) April 15, 2018
Effortless six hitting!! Lazy elegance about each of his last few hits Sanju Samson. Clearing the ropes with ease. Fantastic innings. This will take some getting @RCBTweets #RCBvRR
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) April 15, 2018
Now that is what you expect from a player of the undeniable class of Sanju Samson. Not pretty 30s and 40s but biggies. What an innings this was...
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 15, 2018
Sanju Samson ????????????. Serious player.
— Tymal Mills (@tmills15) April 15, 2018