Sanju Samson’s scintillating hundred on his captaincy debut went in vain, as Rajasthan Royals went down by 4 runs against Punjab Kings at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday.
After being asked to bat first by RR skipper, PBKS lost Mayank Agarwal as he edged a debutant Chetan Sakariya delivery behind the stumps for 14.
KL Rahul and Chris Gayle added 67 runs for the second wicket before the latter was caught by Ben Stokes off Riyan Parag for 40.
Deepak Hooda promoted to No 4 ahead of Nicholas Pooran featured in a brilliant third-wicket stand of 105 along with skipper Rahul. The duo pulverized the Rajasthan Royals bowlers.
Chris Morris in the 18th over struck twice by dismissing Hooda caught at long on by Riyan Parag for a sparkling 64 off 28 balls, and Pooran courtesy a superb catch at fine leg by Sakariya for a duck.
Punjab skipper fell to a magnificent catch at midwicket boundary by Rahul Tewatia off the 22 year old Chetan Sakariya for 91 as PBKS ended up with a mammoth score of 221/6 after 20 overs.
For Royals Chetan Sakariya was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/31.
Chasing 222, Rajasthan Royals started disastrously by losing Ben Stokes in the first over to Mohammed Shami for a duck.
Arshdeep Singh then removed Manan Vohra as he lobbed a return catch, leaving Royals in trouble at 25/2.
The pair of Samson and Jos Buttler stitched together a 45 run stand for the third wicket before the latter was bowled by a slow yorker from Jhye Richardson for a 13 ball 25.
Skipper Samson, who was dropped twice reached his fifty off 33 balls.
With 68 needed off the last five overs, the pair of Samson and Riyan Parag plundered the Punjab bowlers to all parts of the ground. Shami brought Punjab Kings back into the contest by dismissing the 19 year old Parag caught behind the stumps by Rahul.
Samson took on Richardson by smashing him for two boundaries and a six in the 18th over to bring the equation down to 21 off 12 balls. The 26 year old Kerala batsman became the first man to score a ton on his IPL captaincy debut.
With 13 needed off the last over, Samson almost pulled off an incredible victory but was caught at deep cover by Hooda off Arshdeep Singh in the final delivery. His sparkling innings of 119 came off 63 balls with 12 fours and 7 sixes. RR eventually ended up with 217/7 at the end of 20 overs.
