Sanju Samson might have given a clue to other teams.
During the fifth delivery of Jofra Archer’s first over, Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Riyan Parag brought a short third man for Sanju Samson. There was some early movement on offer, and after missing an expansive drive on the previous ball, RR wanted him to try it again. The line was outside off-stump, and an edge resulted in the ball going to the right of the short third man.
Rajasthan Royals knew what they were doing, as expected, given that Samson was with him until recently. He drives around 35.27% of the first seven balls (took seven balls because he faced seven against RR) on the off-stump line or wider. Most of them are without any foot movement, as was the case last night.
Later, when Nandre Burger came, the plan became clearer: angle the ball away from Samson and force him to play across the line. For this, Parag had already placed a short third, stationed by Ravindra Jadeja, and a deep backward point, covered by Jofra Archer. RR had two fielders, as mentioned, to block those cuts and late steers, which have comprised 21.59% of total shots.
The first ball went towards the point region via a dab. On the next delivery, the left-arm pacer shifted from bowling inswingers, which he tried against Ruturaj Gaikwad as well, and moved the ball away with the across angle, which Sanju Samson didn’t account for. He went for a wild flick across the line, but the ball kept moving away from him and crashed onto the stumps.
The fielders on the off-side meant Sanju Samson had to go for that flick, a shot he has played only 3.40% of the time in the initial seven balls. He didn’t account for the away movement either, which kind of shows that he was too hesitant to play his trademark shots on the off-side. A packed field with slightly unconventional positions worked brilliantly.
“It was the first three balls or first four balls [against Sanju] that we wanted to execute something. That kind of went well, so we went ahead with it (the unconventional position for Jadeja). We were just trying to target where he plays his first three to five balls. We set the fielders accordingly and asked him to hit a better shot or hit a different shot, which is, again, a gamble of sorts. But then that gives us a lot of percentage in our favour. The shot he got out to, we would have wanted him to hit that shot instead of bowling short to him and him pulling it, because he likes that. We just try to make decision-making a bit challenging for the batters,” Parag explained.
The percentages, as Parag pointed out, were in RR’s favour once they put a short third and a deep backward point. Since 2024 and before this game, Samson has around 27.27% of shots in the point and third-man regions in the first seven balls on the off-stump line or wider against pacers in the IPL. So, this area was packed completely with the best fielders, forcing him to think differently.
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Rajasthan Royals, especially Archer, also did well by not giving him short balls straight away. Pull shots have been productive for him, and he doesn’t shy from playing aerially in his innings. Sanju Samson endured the worst possible start with CSK and might have also given other teams a clue.
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