Samson: 'We just went off the plan in the death overs'

Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Sanju Samson has pulled up his bowlers for veering off from the team's death-overs plans during their 58-run loss to Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad.

RR started well with a fiery spell from Jofra Archer, who dismissed Shubman Gill for 2 and made use of the movement and bounce on offer, but the team leaked 72 runs in the final five overs that lifted GT from 145 for 2 to 217 for 6. They also conceded 17 runs in all through wides.

"There was definitely some purchase in the wicket, "Samson said in the post-match presentation, "having someone like a Jofra to bowl first, the way he started taking Shubman Gill's wicket and the way we started in the powerplay, that's what we planned.

"We just went off the plan in the death overs. I think, a few plans… we prepared something else, the bowlers executed something else. So we need to look back maybe tomorrow or day after in the meeting and we'll come back and try to execute the same.

"They [GT] also batted really well but I think a couple of sixes or 15 to 20 runs, we gave away in the bowling."

Even though Maheesh Theekshana dismissed M Shahrukh Khan in the 16th over, he also leaked 18 runs off it before Sandeep Sharma sent down the 17th for 13 runs. Archer then returned for an 11-run 18th over - that conceded just one boundary - but then Tushar Deshpande bowled the 19th over for 14 runs and Sandeep's last went for 16, as Rahul Tewatia went on the charge.

RR's spin-bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule also said in the press conference that "it was a very good track to bat on" but they expected the par score to be around "180 to 200" and not 217.

"Yeah, we could have maybe given about 20 runs less but I think they batted well," he said. "[B] Sai Sudharsan came out of the powerplay very strongly and they had better partnerships than what we did, and that's how they got a total, which was big but I personally feel we could have got closer to that only if we had some partnerships going.

"T20 is a format where sometimes the execution doesn't go the way you want it to. They [RR's bowling attack] obviously had plans but unfortunately the execution didn't happen the way they wanted. We are going to bowl some wides [in T20s], but overall the bowling unit definitely did their best on a track which was full of runs."

RR went into the game on the back of wins against Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), both after batting first. But Samson, who opted to bowl on Wednesday, backed to his decision despite the loss and said RR didn't want to be a team "that's only good at defending totals".

"When you lose games, we also feel that 'should we have chased first' or 'should we have done something else?' But I think the conditions, we were expecting this, and this was a really good wicket to chase on," he said. "We'd like to stick in and respect the conditions and do what the condition requires. We don't want to end up being a team that's only good at defending totals. We also want to win games while chasing, not just while batting first."