It was a case of so near yet so far for Sanju Samson and his Rajasthan Royals team on Monday. Chasing a target of 222 runs in the fourth match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 in Mumbai, the Royals fell short by just four runs despite the skipper's valiant effort.
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Samson, who replaced Steve Smith as the Royals skipper, however, marked his IPL captaincy debut with a century. The 26-year-old reached the milestone with a boundary off Jhye Richardson, and became the first player to get a hundred on IPL captaincy debut.
During his 63-ball knock, Samson hit 12 fours and seven sixes, to score 119 runs. He was however dropped twice, once on 12 by his rival number KL Rahul and again on 35 by Mayank Agarwal.
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This was Samson's third IPL ton in 108 matches. Chris Gayle (6 in 133), Virat Kohli (5 in 193), David Warner (4 in 143) and Shane Watson (3 in 170) have more centuries than Samson. AB de Villiers also have three tons in 170 matches.
The previous highest score by a captain on IPL debut was Shreyas Iyer's 93 for Delhi Capitals.
