Rajasthan Royals (RR) reached the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 Qualifier 2 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) with a four-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). The win also helped skipper Sanju Samson equal legendary Shane Warne’s captaincy record for the Royals.
Warne who led RR to title win in the inaugural edition has been a part of 31 wins out of 56 games. It also includes now-defunct Champions T20 League. He captained the side from 2008 to 2011. First captained RR in 2021, Samson has led the franchise in 60 games and has 31 wins to his name.
Under Samson’s captaincy, RR reached the final in IPL 2022 after a huge gap but lost to Gujarat Titans (GT). In the previous season, they missed the playoffs spot by two points.
The 29-year-old is also 76 runs away from becoming the first RR batter to score 4,000 runs in the IPL. He has scored 3,924 runs from 145 games at an average of 31.90 including two centuries and 25 fifties. His strike rate is 140.74.
In the ongoing season, Samson is RR's second-highest run-scorer. He failed to make it big in the eliminator against RCB and got stumped out for a 13-ball 17. So far, he has scored 521 runs from 14 innings in IPL 2024 at an average of 52.10 including five half-centuries. His strike rate of 155.32 also helped him earn a spot in India's T20 World Cup 2024 squad.
Samson praised the coaching staff, experienced and inexperienced players for RR advancing to the IPL 2024 Qualifier 2 despite a slump towards the end of the league stage.
“Credit to the bowlers, they are always looking at what the opposition batters would do and what fields to set. Credit goes to Sanga and bowling coach Shane Bond as well. They've spent a lot of time in hotel rooms discussing these things. Plus Ashwin and Boult are experienced lads. (On Parag and Jaiswal) They are 22 each, so is Jurel. With very little experience, the way they are performing at this level is amazing,” Samson said in the post-match presentation.
Samson also revealed that a lot of players have been under the weather. He is not fully fit either but hopes to be ahead of the Qualifier 2 at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
“I'm not a 100% actually. There is a bug in the dressing room, lots of coughs and a lot of people are a bit unwell. (Going forward) Rovman finished that off well. I think we have a travel day and rest now, looking forward to the next game,” he added.
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