TATA IPL 2024 has been a festival of Last Ball Thrillers, and this Tournament has given us some memorable matches, just at its commencement. Sanju Samson (32-ball 60) and Shimron Hetmyer (26-ball 56*) Quick-fired half-centuries to bail Rajasthan Royals out from a precarious position and helped the side to their fourth win in five games, beating Gujarat Titans by 3 wickets – and four balls to spare – in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Well IPL advances and expects some more stellar performances by the Players, as RR moves to the Table top.
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Shubhman sticks to the Ongoing Form, Miller Killer Knocks a finishing fight for GT
How did Gujarat Titans start with the bat?Â
Pretty bad. Trent Boult batted in the first innings – comically enough. Wriddhiman Saha got a top edge on his shot which ballooned. The three field players gathered under it – Samson, Jurel and Hetmyer – collided. However, the ball bounced off Samson’s gloves towards Boult, who was standing just a few meters away from the trio.
Sai Sudarshan and Shubman Gill failed to gain momentum in the power play, with the former completing 20 off 19 balls before Hardik revived his team’s innings.
The GT skipper, who has endured a rather poor run with the bat so far in IPL 2024, smashed Zampa’s boundary and smashed a six in consecutive deliveries. He even brought up his 2,000th run in the IPL with a boundary – albeit through Ashwin’s lead ball. With Gill, he added 59 runs from just 33 balls before falling to Chahal in 19 balls for 28, giving his team the momentum they needed.
Gill, who raised his score during the partnership, soon went back into the shell and was finally dismissed by Sandeep Sharma thanks to a catch by Jos Buttler.
Rajasthan Royals employed only five bowlers, three of whom were spinners. Although they didn’t have the most economical characters, they didn’t let the GT coils run free at will. David Miller and Abhinav Manohar put on 45 runs in 3.4 overs, but Sandeep Sharma’s good spell at the death ensured they fell just short of the total.
Samson and Shimron Hetmyer bring it back for RR, Ashwin exercises some Power Hitting at last
Yes, when Samson walked to bat in the third innings, Rajasthan Royals lost both their openers – Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler – for just four runs. Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya operated in narrow channels to trouble the RR offence. Impact substitute Devdutt Padikkal tried twice to break the shackles but failed miserably except for one Shami six. In the power play, the guests succeeded only 26/2.
Also, just when it looked like the batsmen had settled and the bowlers were of little help, Padikkal fell to Rashid Khan in the ninth over with Royals still in the game by just over 5 runs. Riyan Parag fell two overs later to reduce the team to 55 for four in 10.3 overs.
The two batsmen came into the game at different times. When Samson walked out, the batsmen were still struggling to get the bat on the ball. The early damage further eroded the reasons to attack, despite the slow result. Samson stayed alert early, but quickly ran into scoring positions without high-risk percentage shots. Sweep over deep square leg for a six and check the boundary.
The first real intent to attack came in the second half of RR’s innings, soon after Parag’s dismissal, when Samson edged Rashid over the deep mid-wicket boundary for six.
In a way, yes. In Rashid’s next over, Samson hit three consecutive sixes to make his intentions clear. Hetmyer began his attack in the next over against the pace of Alzarri Joseph with a six over square leg and a boundary through deep midwicket.
Noor Ahmed, who was brought in the 15th over of the innings, also got a boundary and a six from the RR skipper but was miss-hit by Simson and caught at long-on.
Hetmyer continued the onslaught against his Caribbean counterpart, hitting Alzari for a couple of sixes and a boundary to continue the onslaught. Rashid, who had quite an off day, also bowled Hetmyer in the last over of his spell, conceding 46 runs from four overs.
Shami, who bowled three tight overs in the power play, was brought back on the penultimate ball. Despite the dismissal of Dhruv Jurel and R Ashwin, he ended up losing 16 runs with only 7 to defend in the last over.
Despite a few options, Hardik decided to turn to debutant Noore to deliver under pressure. But Hetmyer completed the formalities in just two balls to help his team over the line.
