Shimron Hetmyer pulled off a last-over heist to take the Rajasthan Royals beyond the finish line on Saturday night in Chandigarh. With 10 needed off the last six balls, the Caribbean batter smashed a couple of sixes as RR defeated the Punjab Kings by 3 wickets.
RR huffed and puffed while chasing 148 in Mullanpur, Chandigarh. After restricting PBKS to 147/8 on a slow pitch, RR were in trouble at 115/5. Under mounting pressure, Hetmyer, who barely got batting time this season, smashed a boundary and three sixes, including the winning shot, to get RR over the line with a ball to spare, as the side got its fifth win of the tournament, while PBKS were consigned to its fourth defeat.
Winning skipper Sanju Samson called it a ‘funny encounter’ as the fixtures between Punjab and Rajasthan have been witnessing close finishes for quite some time now.
“We all were tensed during the run-chase. Games against Punjab in the last 3-4 years, each and every game is a very close, very funny feeling. They were bowling really well, it was a funny game,” Samson said at the post-match presentation.
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“Last game, we did some really great things and we ended up on the losing side. Today, we made a bit more mistakes and we ended up winning the game. It’s a very funny game, so we’d like to keep our heads down and just do the process,” he further said.
Heaping praise on Hetmyer’s fearless knock under pressure, Samson said, “He has been doing it for years and years. Lots of experience, some composure and some confidence in his skills. He has won games many times. Rovman and Hetty – having them was good.”
It was quite surprising to see Tanus Kotian playing the opener’s role on his IPL debut. The Mumbai spinner has been a tail-ender in the domestic circuit but batting in the top-order raised quite a few questions about RR’s planning.
Replying to a massive change in the batting order, Samson said the idea was not to disturb the batting order just because Buttler was not around.
“We had a proper, settled batting order after the openers, we didn’t want to unsettle it and then bring someone up for just one game. Jos is almost ready for the next game, so we just wanted to try him up the order,” Samson said.
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