"He threw away his wicket once again" - Aakash Chopra on Sanju Samson's dismissal during Rajasthan Royals' innings vs LSG in IPL 2022

Aakash Chopra has criticised Sanju Samson for throwing away his wicket once again during Rajasthan Royals' batting effort in Sunday (May 15) night's IPL 2022 game against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).

Samson scored a 24-ball 32 before hitting a Jason Holder delivery straight down Deepak Hooda's throat at deep cover. However, the Royals still posted a formidable total of 178-6 and went on to win the game by 24 runs.

While reflecting on the Royals' innings in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra said about Samson's dismissal:

"Sanju Samson scored important runs, but he threw away his wicket once again after scoring 32 runs. He played a slightly one-too-many shot, got dismissed off Holder's ball."

The former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) player also highlighted Jos Buttler's diminishing returns with the bat in the last few games of IPL 2022. Chopra elaborated:

"You (Rajasthan Royals) won the toss and opted to bat first, but Buttler gets out one more time. The performance has gone slightly down in the last five-six matches, he has scored around 140 runs in the last six matches; he had scored 500 runs in the seven matches prior to that. So it is going slightly cold for him although Orange Cap is still there on his head."

Buttler has a top score of 30 in his last four knocks in IPL 2022 and has been dismissed for single-digit scores in his last two innings. However, with 627 runs to his name, the Rajasthan Royals opener still enjoys a massive lead in the IPL 2022 Orange Cap race, with KL Rahul (469) behind him by more than 150 runs.

The detailed IPL 2022 schedule are available here.

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"He was absolutely stellar in the powerplay" - Aakash Chopra lauds Yashasvi Jaiswal for his knock for Rajasthan Royals

Yashasvi Jaiswal top-scored for Rajasthan Royals with 41 runs [P/C: iplt20.com]

On the flip side, Aakash Chopra was all praise for Yashasvi Jaiswal for the knock he played. He observed:

"Jaiswal scored 41 runs, important runs. He was absolutely stellar in the powerplay although the kid did not get the strike after the powerplay; he was left standing at the other end and eventually lost his wicket off Ayush Badoni's bowling."

The renowned commentator also lauded Devdutt Padikkal and the Rajasthan Royals' lower middle-order batters for taking their IPL team to a fighting total. Chopra said:

"Devdutt Padikkal was absolutely gun, love him to bits. He was absolutely stellar; I like this player a lot. Riyan Parag, Ashwin, Neesham and Boult - overall you score a 178-run total, which in my opinion, was a decent total but also a chaseable one."

While Padikkal smoked 39 runs off just 18 balls, Riyan Parag, James Neesham, Trent Boult and Ravichandran Ashwin's cameos helped RR reach a defendable score, which proved to be enough in the end.