Sanju Samson set a great example when he led from the front in the first match of the IPL 2021 in which Rajasthan Royals played against Punjab Kings (earlier Kings XI Punjab). Though RR lost the match, there is no doubt that Sanju Samson won many hearts on that day including the hearts of his critics.
Batting first, Punjab Kings put up a huge total of 221 runs for the loss of 6 wickets on the score board with the help of skipper KL Rahul’s 91 and Deepak Hooda’s 64. On the other hand, RR had a bad start to batting and wickets kept on falling on a regular basis but Sanju Samson kept one end secure and also scored the runs at good pace. He made 119 runs before getting out with which he also became the first batsman to score a century on his captaincy debut in the IPL.
However, he also became a part of controversy when he refused a single and sent Chris Morris back on the fifth ball of the last over of the Rajasthan innings. On the last two balls, RR needed 5 runs to win, Samson played a shot on the bowling of Arshdeep Singh but refused to take a single as he wanted to keep the strike for hitting a six on the last ball of the innings.
Though Sanju Samson tried his best to hit the maximum, he ended up giving a catch to Deepak Hooda and as a result, RR lost the match by 4 runs and all the efforts of Sanju Samson also went into vain with this.
While many people felt that what Sanju Samson did was absolutely correct as he should have kept the strike, there were many who slammed him for refusing to take the single. Now, the legendary West Indian cricketer Brian Lara has given his opinion on this matter and he seems to be in complete agreement with Sanju Samson. According to Brian Lara, the decision was right as if anyone had to hit the boundary, it would have been Sanju Samson.
While talking with Star Sports, Lara said that he would not be pointing fingers at Sanju Samson because there was no chance of taking second run for keeping the strike as it would have given a chance of run-out to the opposition so what Sanju did was right. Lara further praised the RR skipper and called the innings of Samson as a tremendous one.
What is your take on the whole matter?
