After a heartbreaking loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson had a bizarre statement as he reacted to England cricket turned commentator Nick Knight’s question. RR, playing at home, put on a massive 217-run total with top performances from Samson and Jos Buttler.
But in the second innings, the 2008 champions lost the game in spectacular fashion as Sandeep Sharma delivered a no-ball on the last ball of the innings when SRH had five runs to win. Then on the free-hit ball, Abdul Samad hit a stunning six straight down the ground to clinch the victory. After the match, Sanju was asked whether the RR batters could have scored more runs, reacting to which he stated that he doesn’t know.
Samson said, “But with the target we posted, you can only feel happy once you win the game right, so not at all happy at the moment. That's a great question... I don't know. To be honest, life is never easy playing this format, especially this tournament. Each and every game we have to play our best standard of cricket. We will come back and try to do it again.”
Earlier in his post-game interview, Sanju Samson spoke of the extraordinary ending of the game and talked about how one can’t do a lot when the bowler delivers a no-ball. He also spoke about how the delayed no-ball call also brought a mindset shift as the team was already celebrating.
He said, “Nothing much, it's a no-ball, just have to bowl it again as simple as that, you don't think about it too much. Sandeep knows what to do. Maybe there might be a small change in mindset for a few seconds when you feel that the job is done, everyone was celebrating but I think that's the nature of this game, you can't step the line at that point of time.”