Sanju Samson: We fell short of a six

RR’s Dhruv Jurel plays a cheeky shot during their match against PBKS at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati on Wednesday. Pic/AFP

Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson has blamed the dip in momentum in the middle overs during their stiff chase as the reason behind the five-run loss against Punjab Kings in the IPL here.

Chasing a tricky 198-run target on Wednesday, RR could manage 192 for 7 in the end.

"We started off really well, we finished the powerplay really well. In the middle overs, we were expecting to get the boundaries here and there but they bowled really well. That's where I think the momentum went a bit down," Samson said at the post-match press conference.

Close finish

"We did well to get so close also after the fall in our run rate. We just fell short of a six, just one ball hit away."

Sanju Samson

While chasing the target, Ravichandran Ashwin accompanied Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top for RR instead of Jos Buttler.

And Samson revealed the reason behind the move. "Jos [Buttler] had a small injury. He was doing his stitches as while fielding he got injured. So the physio wanted some time, time was not there to get the stitches and go to open. The move was to send Ashwin bhai and then holding everyone back.

"He [Buttler] seems fine, I think he should be fine," Samson said. Shikhar Dhawan, who has been marshalling the Punjab Kings unit really well, did confess that he was nervous when Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel took the game to the wire. "There were some nervous moments but I was keeping my calm and the same with the bowlers. There was a lot of dew. The bowlers did a great job. I was happy with the score we put up. They bowled well and bowled very good yorkers," he praised Sam Curran's death bowling.

Also read: IPL 2023: Dhawan, Prabhsimran power Punjab to 197-4 against Rajasthan Royals

Powerplay plus

Getting early wickets in powerplay also helped, the skipper said. "Scoring 197 and then my bowlers coming and getting early wickets and keeping the pressure on and then Nathan came on and got wickets. We never let the game get out of our hands.

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