‘GT’s best bowler was completely caught off the guard’: Sangakkara lauds Samson | Cricket News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson bailed his team out from precarious 4/55 while chasing 178 against Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2023 match on Sunday.
Samson played a captain’s knock of 60 off 32 balls while Shimron Hetmyer cracked an unbeaten 56 off just 26 balls to help RR gun down the target with four balls to spare.
During his knock, Samson smashed three successive sixes off Rashid Khan in the 13th over to change the gear of RR’s chase and their coach Kumar Sangakkara feels skipper’s all out attack against GT’s best bowler proved to be the game changer.

“Not just you got us through the powerplay, but that Rashid Khan over and then how you kicked on from there, that was the game changer. Their best bowler, some say the best T20 spinner in the world, was completely caught off the guard,” said Sangakkara to Samson in a post-match video uploaded on the Royals’ social media accounts.
Samson and Hetmyer added a crucial stand of 59 runs off 27 balls to set up the run chase. Hetmyer then added 47 runs off 20 deliveries with Dhruv Jurel (18 off 10 balls) to complete the chase.

“It just goes to show that when you are in the game, anything is possible. Whether it is Rashid Khan, Shane Warne or Muttiah Muralitharan, it doesn’t matter when we’re in the game. We play the ball, not the man. Again, brilliantly done,” said Sangakkara, himself a batting legend and a former Sri Lanka captain.