It’s not just his batting, but England T20 World Cup-winning skipper Jos Buttler’s presence is rubbing off on the Rajasthan Royals’ youngsters, captain Sanju Samson said after their huge 72-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in Hyderabad on Sunday.
Player-of-the-match Buttler slammed an explosive 22-ball 54, while his rookie opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal matched the English star with an identical score as the duo put together a record 85 for RR in the powerplay to propel them to 203/5. In reply, the home side managed 131/8.
“His presence brings a lot of positive energy to the team,” Samson told reporters in the post-match interaction.
“You can see the way Yashasvi Jaiswal is batting this season. It has to rub on to the youngsters, and his role, like everyone’s, is equally important.”
The limited-overs English skipper is a fun-loving guy, unlike how he appears, Samson further said.
“He looks a little bit of a serious kind of a guy, but he has a lot of fun on the inside, in the dressing room as well as in the (team) bus. He likes to talk to people and people are learning a lot (from him),” Samson said.
Samson backed RR’s youngsters Jaiswal, Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel to do well as they head to Guwahati to play their next two matches against Punjab Kings (Wednesday) and Delhi Capitals (Saturday).
“A lot of youngsters in our team, such as Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, and Dhruv Jurel are really pumped up because they have had a really strong domestic season.
“You can make that out from the way to Yashasvi Jaiswal batted today. Definitely, he has had a good start and he is going to have a great season,” Samson said.
Sunrisers Hyderabad stand-in skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s decision to bowl first may have backfired on a batting-friendly Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here.
But Samson backed his SRH counterpart and said it was a ‘good decision’ on a slow pitch.
“The wicket was a bit slow to start with but it got a bit better in the second innings. It was a good decision (by Bhuvneshwar Kumar). Our players batted really well to get that kind of score on that kind of a wicket,” Samson said.
LARA BACKS ‘BOWL FIRST’ DECISION
Legendary Brian Lara, who is the head coach of SRH, pointed out that the practice pitches were “bouncy” so they wanted to exploit the conditions keeping in mind of their bowling strength.
“We played a lot of practice sessions alongside the actual pitch. Those were a little bit bouncy and had a bit of pace on them. When we looked at the track for today we felt it was a good track and it was the first game of the tournament.
“(We thought) Let’s see if we can, with bowling being our strong suit during the camps, if we can put the opposition under pressure,” Lara said.
Lara added, “It did not work out that way, but I still felt that it was a very good track throughout.
“Obviously with a little bit of rough marks and with the class of Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin… We did not bowl as well as we should have in the opening overs and the guys put their hands up and said we got to improve in that area.”
The West Indies legend further said SRH did poorly in both the powerplays.
“If you split the game into two halves, we lost the first powerplay with the ball in our hands. And when we had the bat in our hands, we also lost powerplay.
“They got 85 and it obviously becomes tough when you lose two wickets in the first over chasing over 200,” Lara added.