Hetmyer, Samson fifties help Rajasthan Royals beat Gujarat Titans by 3 wickets

Rajasthan Royals were literally in a no mans land at 664 in 12 overs in their pursuit of chasing down 178 against a strong Gujarat Titans bowling attack who bowled 26 dot balls in the first six oversFrom there captain Sanju Samson took 20 runs off Rashid Khan in the 13th over to eventually make 60 while Shimron Hetmyer smashed a whirlwind unbeaten 56 off just 26 balls to give Rajasthan an improbable threewicket victory in 23rd match of the IPL 2023 here on SundayThe stunning heist also means that Rajasthan retain their top spot on the points table with eight points Samson and Hetmyer added a crucial stand of 59 runs off 27 balls followed by the latter adding 47 runs off 20 deliveries with Dhruv Jurel to complete the chase with four balls to spareMohammed Shami built pressure from the word go troubling Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler Gujarat got the reward when Hardik Pandya had Jaiswal nicking to slip in the next over Shami bowled a wicket maiden third over and took out Buttler whose attempt to scoop backfired and could only see offstump being sent on a cartwheel rideGujarat could have got their third wicket had Shubman Gill held on to a tough chance at slip to dismiss Devdutt Padikkal off Shami The lefthanded batter then lofted Hardik insideout over extra cover for six as Rajasthan ended powerplay at 262 Samson and Padikkal hit a six and four each off Alzarri Joseph with the Rajasthan captain driving Hardik in the gap between extra cover and midoff after surviving an lbw appealRashid straightaway made a breakthrough as Padikkals heave took an outside edge and was caught by short third man The legspinner struck again in his next over as Riyan Parag holed out to a forward diving longoff Samson though had other ideas taking Rashid for a hattrick of sixes once over longoff and twice pulling over deep midwicketHetmyer took on Joseph by heaving high past leaping deep square leg for six and slogging through the same region for four more before Samson got his fifty in 29 balls Samson took on debutant spinner Noor Ahmad lifting a drive over longoff for six and pulling past short fine leg for fourBut the teenager coming in as an impact player for Gill had the last laugh as Samson skied to longoff to get his first IPL wicket Hetmyer turned the tide by smacking two gigantic sixes off Joseph in the 16th over with Dhruv Jurel dabbing for a four He then pulled Rashid for four before slamming a six over longon to take 13 runs off the 18th overAlso readIPL 2023 Mohit Gill shine as Gujarat Titans beat PBKS by six wicketsJurel welcomed Shami by smacking over longon for six But the pacer bounced back by having Jurel topedge a hook to fine leg Ravichandran Ashwin slapped his first ball over point for four and followed it up with a pulled six over deep midwicket Though Ashwin fell by slicing to short third man Hetmyer finished off the chase by pulling Ahmad over deep midwicket for six to complete a sensational chase for RajasthanBrief ScoresGujarat Titans 1777 in 20 overs David Miller 46 Shubman Gill 45 Sandeep Sharma 225 Adam Zampa 132 lost to Rajasthan Royals 1797 in 192 overs Sanju Samson 60 Shimron Hetmyer 56 not out Mohammed Shami 325 Rashid Khan 246 by three wicketsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever