NEW DELHI: Rajasthan Royals' skipper
Sanju Samson
expressed disappointment following another narrow defeat, this time against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.
DC bounced back with a convincing 20-run victory over RR, reigniting their slim IPL playoff aspirations.
Tristan Stubbs
' explosive 41 off 20 deliveries propelled Delhi to a formidable total of 221/8 after Rajasthan chose to field.
In response, Rajasthan could only manage 201/8, with
Kuldeep Yadav
starring for Delhi with figures of 2/25. Despite skipper Samson's valiant 86 off 46 balls, Rajasthan fell short. Kuldeep's late strikes and
Shai Hope
holding Samson's contentious catch at the boundary turned the tide in Delhi's favour.
Earlier, Jake Fraser-McGurk (50 off 20) and Abishek Porel (65 off 36) provided Delhi with a flying start before
Ravichandran Ashwin
's (3/24) intervention triggered a collapse.
Despite their efforts, RR fell short against DC, adding to their string of close defeats. Samson's rueful sentiments highlight the team's desire for improvement and the urgency to turn close encounters into wins in future fixtures.
"I think we had it in our hands, it was like 11-12 runs per over, it was achievable, these things happen in IPL. Yes, we are doing both the things fine, we will like to stick to what the conditions demand, 220 was 10 runs extra to chase, the DC opener came out and did what he does, we still came back well," Samson said after the match.
"We have lost three games but all those games have been really tight, we have been playing remarkably well, we have to do some fine-tuning and we need to keep the momentum going. Yes and No actually, you have to give credit to someone like Stubbs who batted well against Sandeep, he scored 2-3 sixes extra against my best bowlers who are
Yuzi Chahal
and
Sandeep Sharma
. We have lost the game, we have to find out where we lost the game, we need to keep moving," Samson added.
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