The incident between Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni in the semi-finals of the 2014 T20 World Cup was brought to mind by Sanju Samson’s action against Yashasvi Jaiswal.
On Thursday in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, Rajasthan Royals beat Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by a score of 9 wickets thanks to an unbeaten 121-run partnership between Yashasvi Jaiswal and captain Sanju Samson. Despite posting the fastest fifty in IPL records, Jaiswal was bowled out for 98 and did not go undefeated on the season. However, Captain Samson did everything in his power to help the youthful opening hitter achieve triple digits.
Samson was batting with the penultimate ball of the 13th over when he saw Kolkata spinner Suyash Sharma bowl an errant wide to the leg side. The RR captain blocked the delivery to prevent a wide but did not contribute to the team’s run total.
Samson advised Jaiswal, who was batting on 94 at the time, to hit a six on the first ball of the next over in order to help the Royals win by a comfortable margin of three runs. The left-handed opener managed only a four and finished the game with 98 runs undefeated.
Seeing the opportunity, Rajasthan Royals turned to Twitter to reflect on a previous event involving captain Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni, in which Dhoni stopped a ball on the final delivery of an over to allow Kohli to hit the winning runs.
This particular Kohli-Dhoni exchange occurred during India’s semi-final match against South Africa at the 2014 T20 World Cup. After taking the strike, Kohli hit a four off Dale Steyn’s ball to end India’s run chase.
Jaiswal hit the winning runs for Rajasthan, even though he fell short of a century when Samson failed to win it on the final ball of the previous over.
