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After suffering a defeat against Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson said they could have won the game if their batters had slammed more boundaries at regular intervals and believes that the decline in momentum during their innings is what cost them the game.
A fiery four-wicket haul by Nathan Ellis and a skilful exhibition of death bowling by Sam Curran in the final over helped Punjab Kings overcome a late flourish by the duo of Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel to clinch a five-run win over Rajasthan Royals in last over thriller in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) at Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on Wednesday. "In games like these, momentums shift away from you pretty quickly. We started off very well. In the middle, we were expecting to get boundaries here and there. But we couldn't and that's where we lost it. Even after that, we did well to get close to the target. With a couple of boundaries here and there, we could have [won]," Samson said during the post-match conference. The Royals captain stated that the physio needed time to perform stitches on Jos Buttler, who suffered a minor injury while fielding, and that Ravichandran Ashwin was sent to hold the other batters. "Buttler had a small injury, which happened during fielding. The physio didn't have enough time to do his stitches. So, the idea was to send Ashwin bhai and to hold everyone back. He [Buttler] is fine...he had his stitches, batted well and should be fine," explained Samson. The Royals captain also explained how the team had been scouting and training homegrown talents such as Dhrun Jurel, Riyan Parag, and Yashasvi Jaiswal in preparation for the tournament. "That's how we work as a franchise. He [Jurel] has been with us for the last two years. We make sure that those who play only domestic tournaments come to our academies. We did five to seven such camps across the country and we made sure players like Jurel, Riyan Parag and Yashasvi Jaiswal attended these camps," said Samson. Samson stated that they had not expected dew to fall from the first innings and that they had learned a lot from the game. "We expected this to be a high-scoring game and we were prepared for dew to set in for the second innings. But we had dew right from the first innings. We have definitely learned a lot from this game and we will come stronger in the next one," the Rajasthan Royals captain said. (ANI)
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