After his side’s win over Punjab Kings (PBKS), Rajasthan Royals (RR) skipper Sanju Samson hailed the pace duo of Jofra Archer and Sandeep Sharma as “deadly”, saying that he trusts them in pressure overs. RR secured their second win of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 and continued their recovery after a shaky start, beating Shreyas Iyer-led PBKS at their own den at Mullanpur after surviving a Nehal Wadhera-Glenn Maxwell scare while defending 206 runs.
During the post-match presentation, Samson said about the pace duo, which took five wickets combined, “That is a very deadly combo – one guy bowling around 150 and another bowling around 115. (On being told that Sandeep clocked 130 kph tonight) I think we should cut a cake on that maybe (laughs). I can trust them with pressure overs. We all love it when he (Archer) bowls those quick overs. Sandy (Sandeep) has been doing it for me for the past few overs. He is one of the best guys in India (bowling in the powerplay and at the death).”
Speaking about his team’s batting, Samson said, “The way we started in the powerplay, I felt we were running a bit short. But with the quality of batsmanship we had, and because we were struggling, thought they will also. It was a good score. Young batting line-up, but they have played a lot of games as well, and they can assess the conditions really well. Felt we were managing and playing the game really well.”
After PBKS won the toss and elected to bowl first, an 89-run stand between Yashasvi Jaiswal (67 in 45 balls, with three fours and five sixes) and Sanju Samson (38 in 26 balls, with six fours) kickstarted things to RR. Cameos from Riyan Parag (43* in 25 balls, with three fours and three sixes) and Shimron Hetmyer (20 in 12 balls, with two fours and a six) took RR to 205/4 in 20 overs.
Lockie Ferguson (2/37) was PBKS’s top bowler. Arshdeep Singh and Marco Jansen each took one wicket.
During the run-chase, PBKS was reduced to 43/4 by Jofra Archer (3/25). However, an 88-run stand between Nehal Wadhera (62 in 41 balls, with five fours and three sixes) and Glenn Maxwell (30 in 21 balls, with three fours and a six) gave PBKS’ hope. However, after their dismissals, PBKS lost their direction and missed boundaries dearly. PBKS was restricted to 155/9 in 20 overs, thanks to some fine bowling support from Sandeep Sharma (2/21) and Maheesh Theekshana (2/26).
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