Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson said yesterday that the nature of the Eden Gardens pitch changed during the course of the first qualifier and batting in the second innings became much easier as compared to the first innings.
Rajasthan Royals had to bat first in qualifier 1 of IPL 2022 again after Sanju Samson lost his 13th toss of the tournament. The pitch was not easy to bat on against the new ball at all and Gujarat bowlers bowled in good areas.
The Rajasthan openers, particularly one of their main batsmen Jos Buttler struggled big-time against the seaming ball, but Rajasthan still managed to get off to a decently quick start, courtesy of Sanju himself who scored 47 off just 27 balls, batting at no. 3.
Buttler then finished the innings well towards the latter stages, but his struggle at the beginning and in the middle phase of the innings seemed to cost Rajasthan Royals 15-20 extra runs which could have been the difference in the game.
Sanju Samson thinks the ball was gripping and the bounce was uneven in the first innings
According to Sanju Samson, there was not just seam movement on offer in the first innings, the ball was also gripping for the spinners and sometimes, the bounce was uneven too. Later on, the surface settled down quite well as the game progressed and strokeplay was much easier in the second innings when Gujarat batted.
Sanju is probably correct in his assessment because it appeared like that from outside as well the ball was coming onto the bat better in the second innings, but Rajasthan would have felt they were still in the game when 16 runs were required off the last over.
However, Prasidh Krishna was smashed out of the ground thrice in a row by David Miller and Gujarat won the game with three balls in hand. It was one of the most thrilling playoff games in the IPL ever.
