120/0 chasing a target of 186. The Punjab Kings openers had laid a solid foundation for an easy chase against Rajasthan Royals in their opening match of the UAE leg of IPL 2021 on Tuesday night. Four runs were needed from the last six balls, the match was to be lost.
And then after six deliveries, it was not the PBKS camp that was oozing with joy. It was RR who pulled off an incredible victory by successfully defending four runs thanks to their uncapped India pacer Karthik Tyagi, who took two wickets apart from allowing just one.
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From outside, it was PBKS that remained the heavy favorites in the form of Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul, who chased them down with a century partnership. However, as he later said, Samson did not lose faith in his bowlers.
“It’s funny we kept believing (we could have won),” a relieved Samson said during the post-match presentation.
However, right after Samson’s decision to bring in Riyan Parag, he dismissed Agarwal for 67 raised eyebrows. Parag conceded 16 runs, allowing PBKS a much-needed release after losing two early wickets.
Samson later explained that he wanted his frontline pacers to be kept for a later stage.
“I kept Mustafizur (Rahman) and Tyagi’s overs till the end. We just kept fighting and believing. I always believe in my bowlers. Wanted to keep fighting and so I kept those two overs till the end,” Samson explained.
“Tyagi had faith in his yorkers, especially the wide yorkers. He did well against the new batsmen.”
On the question of RR not being able to score in the vicinity of 200, where it looked a real possibility, Samson said, “To be very honest, to get that score on this wicket, we had to It felt good because we bowled. Had we taken the (dropped) catch, we could have won the first match.”
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