When a 50-50 decision is made in a game that could potentially alter the outcome, the team benefiting from it always supports that decision and asserts its legality. On the other hand, the team at the receiving end is left red-faced, feeling a sense of injustice and a spectrum of emotions far removed from fairness. The Sanju Samson Catch is in that conversation, where players and staff from both camps were going, and still are, through extremely different emotions.
DC vs RR IPL 2024: Was Sanju Samson Catch Legal?
For the first time this season, Rajasthan Royals headed into a game feeling some degree of pressure after losing the first spot to Kolkata Knight Riders. Then there was a small matter of returning to winning ways following a heart-wrenching 1-run defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
For RR, the day started in the worst possible way as DC openers Jake Fraser-McGurk (50 off 20, 7X4s, 3X6s) and Abishek Porel (65 off 36, 7X4s, 3X6s) made fast start. Later in the innings, Tristan Stubbs (41 off 20, 3X4s, 3X6s) did the damage and took Delhi to 221/8 in 20 overs.
Chasing a big target requires solid foundations and RR failed in that regard. Yashasvi Jaiswal (4 off 2) departed without troubling the score, while Jos Buttler (19 off 17) struggled to pace his innings and was back in pavilion on the 2nd last ball of powerplay.
Riyan Parag came and played some shots, as did Shubham Dubey, but it was Rajasthan Royals‘ captain Sanju Samson who was key, a beacon of hope for the 2008 champions, and the worst nightmare for Rishabh Pant and his players. The way Samson was hitting, the way he was middling the ball, he looked a certain match-winner.
At 15.3, RR’s score was 162/3, with the visitors needing 60 more runs to win in 27 balls. The required run-rate was a shade above 12, which is nothing these days. But then came that incident which shook the internet and divided opinions like nothing else.
Mukesh Kumar bowled a slower ball, and Samson hit it with a flat bat, but without a proper connection on the shot. The ball did travel on a flat trajectory towards the long-on. On another day, it could have been a flat six. But Shai Hope plucked the ball, while staggering on the boundary line, seemingly avoiding touching the ropes. For some, Hope’s toe did touch the rope, and for some, he avoided it. Watch:
I saw the cushion move. It was not out and Sanju Samson misses out on a well deserved hundred. #RRvsDC #DCvsRR#SanjuSamson pic.twitter.com/f2lrWJ5TDl
— Nirmal Jyothi (@majornirmal) May 7, 2024
Sanju Samson was clearly unhappy at the hurriedness shown in taking the decision. He was arguing with the umpire, but the decision was made and the RR captain had to slog towards the pavilion.
“It depends on, you know, the replays and angles and sometimes you think the foot’s touched. But it’s a difficult one for the third umpire to judge. The game was at a crucial stage, so that happens in cricket.
[We’ve got] different perspectives on it but you know at the end of the day you got to stand by that decision of the third umpire [is what] the umpires did. If we have any other kind of opinion on it, we’ll share it with the umpires and sort it out. I thought irrespective of the dismissal, we still should have probably seen that game home but I thought Delhi played really really well. And they fought till the end and they were very smart with their bowling at the backend.”
As expected, DC assistant coach Pravin Amre was going through a completely different emotions.
“In (the) IPL, some momentums are very crucial. This was a deciding moment in our game. I think Sanju was batting so well. And we have to give credit to Hope to judge that catch, to be very honest. And umpires are there, there’s also so much technology. It was given out by the third umpire. Umpire’s decision is the final decision and I will give credit to Hope because it wasn’t an easy catch. It was really travelling.
Irrespective of whether the decision was right or wrong, Royals have only themselves to blame for the loss. Even after Samson’s wicket, RR had six wickets left and should have seen out the match. At one stage, visitors needed just 42 runs off 22 balls, and that was an equation most teams would take at the start of chasing a target.
