Sanju Samson played a blinder to counter the damage that Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya had done in the powerplay. Rajasthan Royals had lost both Jos Buttler and Yasahsvi Jaiswal and were able to score just four runs in the first three overs. However, Samson blasted 60 in 32 balls to bring RR right back in the chase. He first put up a 43-run stand off 34 balls for the third wicket with Devdutt Padikkal and then a 59-run stand that came in just 27 balls with Shimron Hetmyer for the fifth. Hetmyer kept RR’s chase alive after Samson fell to GT’s debutant spinner from Afghanistan Noor Ahmad. He ended up being unbeaten on 56 off 26 with some help from batters like Ravichandran Ashwin, who smashed 10 runs in the two balls he faced. Hetmyer hit a six off the the second ball of the last over to win it for RR. Earlier, they restricted GT to 177/7 with David Miller providing the late push. GT looked set for a score close to 200 when Hardik Pandya and Shubman Gill went big guns after the powerplay but they lost steam after the former’s dismissal. Miller was dropped early in his innings and made RR pay by scoring 46 off 30 balls.
