Sanju Samson’s full return as Rajasthan Royals captain in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 wasn’t a pleasant one as his stay at the crease lasted just 11 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders.
With the pitch at the ACA Stadium in Guwahati offering good seam movement for the pacers, Samson opened the innings with Yashasvi Jaiswal and scored two handsome boundaries in the Power Play and took the score to 33 in 3.4 overs.
Before Samson’s innings could gather steam, Arora fired a fuller-length delivery right the blockhole as he spotted the right hander was shuffling across his stumps. Samson completely missed the ball as it took out his leg stump cleanly off the ground.
The RR captain, who had played as an Impact Player against SRH and scored 66 off 37 balls, was able to score only 13 off 11 balls in his second outing of the latest season.
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Samson’s wicket reflected RR batters’ fate in the match as the KKR bowlers tightened noose around the runflow. After Arora struck, local boy and stand-in captain Riyan Parag scored some free-flowing shots and reached 25 off 15 balls before he was caught by the keeper off Varun Chakravarthy’s eighth over.
Jaiswal, who survived a handful of half chances until then, departed in the next over as he launched it straight to India teammate Harshit Rana at long-on.
Moeen Ali, who got Jaiswal’s scalp on his KKR debut, then got things going for his team with the wicket of former KKR regular Nitish Rana for a paltry score of nine. Things only got worse for RR as their new recruit and debutant Wanindu Hasaranga was sent back by Varun.
Hasaranga was brought in for Fazalhaq Farooqi for the match after their pacers suffered a beating at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad in the first match.
Samson was then taken off and left-hander Shubham Sharma was sent in to bat as Impact Player. Samson will not be an active part of the field for RR for one more game as he is yet to be cleared by the BCCI medical team to keep wickets. Parag will continue as the captain for the next match also.
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