Kumar Sangakkara breaks silence on Sanju Samson’s dismissal, says- ‘It depends…’ cricket news

After losing to Delhi Capitals by 20 runs at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in IPL 2024, Rajasthan Royals director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara believes his team should have won the match despite the dramatic dismissal of captain Sanju Samson. Samson played a brilliant inning of 86 runs in 46 balls, where he was timing all his eight fours and six sixes like a dream. His brilliant innings ended in dramatic circumstances on the fourth ball of the 16th over, when Shai Hope took a brilliant catch at long-on, balancing himself just millimeters from the boundary off Mukesh Kumar.

Third umpire Michael Gough examined some angles but found no evidence of Hope’s shoe coming in contact with the boundary rope and the decision was given out. Samson started to walk back after watching the replays, but after seeing ‘Out’ flashing on the screen, he went to the umpires to protest and even tried to get a review, but it was in vain.

“It depends on the replay and the angle; sometimes you feel the leg has touched. It is difficult for the third umpire to make that decision. The game was at a crucial stage; what happens in cricket, you have different There are approaches. At the end of the day, you have to follow the decision given by the third umpire.

“If we have any other kind of opinion, we will share it with the umpires and sort it out. Despite that out, we should have won the game. But Delhi played really well and fought till the end. They were very smart. Bowling at the back-end,” Sangakkara said in the post-match press conference.

Later, Samson was fined 30 per cent of his match fee for a Level 1 offense under Article 2.8 of the IPL Code of Conduct, which deals with showing dissent over a decision made by the umpires. “On-field umpires have to go by what the TV umpire says. At the end of the day all players have to follow it. There is a lot of pressure on the players and officials in the middle, so we try to solve it in the best way possible,” Sangakkara said.

DC assistant coach Praveen Amre praised Hope’s athletic effort to take the catch of Samson. “In the IPL, certain paces are very important and this was a defining moment in the game. Sanju was batting very well in the game and we have to give credit to the way Hope tested and balanced the catches.

“Also, the umpires are there, so there’s a lot of technique, and their decision is the final decision. I’ll give credit to Hope because it wasn’t an easy catch. I talked to him after the game and he said he anticipated it because the ball It came very, very fast,” he said.

With 471 runs in 11 matches, Samson has been consistently scoring runs for RR, including five half-centuries, and is third in the Orange Cap race. Scoring runs at a consistent pace was identified as a problem with Samson last season, something that is on display this season, along with not being dismissed by spin and more importantly when needed. The key is to increase your strike-rate, as Sangakkara said.

“The biggest thing for Sanju this season is that he has a lot of clarity about how he should bat. There are certain phases of the game when he loses a bit of concentration, as we saw from last season He has really come into it and his role, not only as a captain, but when he bats as a batsman, he has talked all the time about the importance of rest and recovery rather than just training. Has changed his mindset from being mentally and physically tired to actually enjoying it.

“The rest is just his extraordinary ability. He’s a very special player and when he’s fresh and focused, there’s nothing he really can’t do. I think his qualities are extraordinary. He’s very humble. , is a down to earth guy.”

“Not much on social media, he likes his privacy. He really cares about the rest of the group. So those are great qualities in addition to his talent and skills. So, I think, he’ll be exceptional in that group. At the World Cup, he is exceptionally talented against both pace and spin, high pace doesn’t bother him, it’s just a case of focusing and trusting the areas in which he is good. Scores are going as intended.

“It’s not just about sixes and fours, it’s also about making sure a good ball goes for a one or two. But still, he can play any shot in the book. He has the ability to cross boundaries. Has tremendous bowling power, and he is exceptionally talented against spin,” Sangakkara explained.

He signed off without taking a side on who between Samson and Pant should be India’s main wicketkeeper-batsman in the upcoming T20 World Cup. “I think he’s already in the World Cup squad, right? I really don’t know. It really depends on Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma how they see the combination. But he has staked his claim, so hopefully he will perform well in the World Cup.

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