IPL 2021: “Sharjah is his favorite ground” - Sanju Samson on Rahul Tewatia’s knock 

Rajasthan Royals (RR) skipper Sanju Samson described Sharjah as Rahul Tewatia’s favorite ground after he top-scored for the team against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Thursday.

Tewatia’s 44 off 36 was the only performance of note for RR with the bat as they stumbled to a 86-run defeat in match number 54 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. Chasing a tough target of 172, RR folded up for 85 in 16.1 overs.

At one stage, they were 35 for 7 after nine overs before Tewatia threw his bat around and gave the RR total a semblance of respectability.

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Speaking about Tewatia’s innings, Samson said at a post-match conference:

“Sharjah is his favorite ground. He enjoys batting here.”

It was in Sharjah last season that Tewatia hit five sixes in an over from Sheldon Cottrell as RR chased down a record target of 224 against Punjab Kings (PBKS).

The RR captain rued the fact that no one stayed with Tewatia on Thursday to build a partnership. Samson opined:

“If somebody could have had a decent partnership with him, I think we would have had a close match at least. He was batting really well. He wanted someone else to be with him and have a good stand actually. We didn’t do that, which is why we ended up on the losing side.”

RR lost four wickets inside the first four overs in the chase, including that of Samson, who fell to Shivam Mavi for 1.

“Need to play better standard of cricket to win more game” - RR skipper Sanju Samson

Thursday’s loss to KKR ended RR’s campaign in IPL 2021. They had a forgettable run, winning five and losing nine of their 14 games.

Reflecting on the team’s performance, Samson admitted that they need to do a lot more to win consistently in the IPL.

“I think if you look at the whole season, we have gone through many challenges. We showed character though and am proud of the boys. We won some close games and lost some easy ones. We need to play a better standard of cricket to win more games in this tournament,” Samson said, speaking after RR’s embarrassing defeat.

On Thursday’s loss to KKR, Samson conceded that there were no demons in the wicket and that the batters should have applied themselves better.

“I think to be very honest it was a better wicket. It was staying a little low with the new ball but it was a better wicket. 171 was chaseable on this wicket. I think we wanted to get a good start. We needed a powerful powerplay. We wanted to execute whatever we planned but we didn't execute,” he explained.

Samson ended IPL 2021 with 484 runs in 14 games at a strike rate of 136.72 with one hundred and two fifties.