Sanju Samson's breathtaking strokeplay formed the cornerstone of Rajasthan Royals' 19-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in a high-scoring Indian Premier League match in Bengaluru, on Sunday.
Riding on Samson's 45-ball 92, Rajasthan Royals posted a mammoth 217 for four after they were put into bat.
The Rajasthan bowlers, led by Shreyas Gopal's two for 22, restricted RCB to 198 for six despite Virat Kohli's sizzling innings of 57 from 30 balls.
This was Rajasthan's second win from three games, while RCB, on the otherhand, slumped to their second defeat in three games.
It was Gopal who dismissed a rampaging Kohli in the 11th over to turn the match decisively in his team's favour. Kohli's pull shot was taken at deep midwicket by Darcy Short, who timed his jump to perfection.
Leg-spinner Gopal, who plays Ranji Trophy for Karnataka, then silenced his 'home crowd' knocking out AB de Villiers, whose poorly executed pull-shot was snapped by Jaydev Unadkat at fine leg.
Washington Sundar (35 off 19 balls) and Mandeep Singh (47 no off 25 balls) added 66 runs for the fifth wicket but they were left with an uphill task as the asking rate kept on mounting.
Earlier, Samson sent the bowlers on a leatherhunt hitting as many as 10 sixes and two fours, at the M Chinnaswamy stadium.
The Kerala scored his half-century off 34 balls, showing one and all why he is so highly rated by India 'A' coach Rahul Dravid.
In Jos Buttler (21 off 14), Samson found an able partner as they put on 73 runs in just 37 balls.
Umesh Yadav after his brilliant bowling in the last match was completely off colour going for 59 runs in four wicketless overs. The last three overs yielded 60 runs for the Royals.
Samson first got 16 runs off Kulwant Khejroliya, who bowled the 18th over and then hammered Woakes for 17 off the penultimate over by smashing a six and two consecutive fours.
He saved his best for the last plundering Umesh for 27 runs that hit three sixes and a boundary. Only Yuzvendra Chahal had respectable figures of 2 for 22 in 4 overs.
Rajasthan had started their innings with a flurry of boundaries hit by skipper Ajinkya Rahane, who slammed 36 off 20 balls.
He then clobbered 14 runs of off-spinner Washington Sundar by hitting a boundary and a six. In next over, he belted two more boundaries of Yadav, taking the score to 33 for no loss.
Woakes, however, had the last laugh by getting Rahane, whose miscued hit landed straight into the hands of Yadav after he had struck six boundaries and a six.
Soon Darcy Short top-edged which landed safe into the hands of wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock after he had made 11 runs of 17 balls with one boundary, leaving the score at 53 for two in 6.5 overs.
Samson and Ben Stokes put on 49 runs partnership for fourth wicket in 33 balls, before the England batsman was out scoring 27 off 21 balls with two boundaries and a six.
