‘Paaji, har baar itne tight matches kyun?' - Sanju Samson niggles Shikhar Dhawan after another RR vs PBKS thriller

Rajasthan Royals (RR) skipper Sanju Samson humorously expressed his sentiments after a thrilling encounter against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) on Wednesday, April 5. In their second encounter of IPL 2023, the last year’s runners-up were defeated by Shikhar Dhawan-led PBKS by five runs. Rajasthan had, however, started their IPL campaign with a fantastic win over Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Samson won the toss and invited Dhawan and Co. to bat first at Barsapara's ACA Stadium, the latest addition to the realm of IPL. The RR bowlers struggled as PBKS posted a mammoth total of 197 against the loss of four wickets in 20 overs. RR, on the other hand, only managed to score 192 in the allotted overs while chasing the target, thus missing it by a whisker.

On Thursday, Samson took to Twitter and shared a picture of himself standing alongside PBKS captain Dhawan after the game. Along with the picture, he wrote a brief statement, highlighting the number of close finishes that both teams have had over the years.

"Paaji, itne tight matches kyun?" This translates as "Big brother, why do we always have such close matches?" his caption read.

See the tweet:

Sanju Samson@IamSanjuSamson

“Paaji, har baar itne tight matches kyun?” 🫢

12:13 PM · Apr 06, 2023

36.1K1.3K

Samson explains reasons behind changes in batting lineup during RR vs PBKS 

Many were surprised after RR sent Ravichandran Ashwin to start the batting with Yashasvi Jaiswal whereas Jos Buttler batted at No. 3. However, Sanju Samson attempted to explain RR's reasons behind such changes in their batting lineup. In addition, he indicated that RR would be more prepared for the coming game.
 
"I thought we did well to restrict them to 197. Jos wasn't fully fit (injured his finger while taking the catch), and the thinking behind keeping Padikkal (in the middle order) was to tackle their two spinners in the middle overs," Samson said.

"I was expecting the dew to come in the second innings, but it was evident that it was there right at the start, need to be prepared better for such things in the next game," he added.