Samson on Starc: 'One of the best guys around in the world'

Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Sanju Samson retired hurt clutching his side during their dramatic loss to Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

At the end of the game, which needed a Super Over to determine the winners, the RR captain said he wasn't too badly off. "It feels all right," he said at the post-match presentation. "I was just not ready to come back and bat here. Just maybe observe it tomorrow and see how it is."

The injury took place during the sixth over of RR's chase of 189, when Samson tried to cut legspinner Vipraj Nigam and missed. He immediately clutched at his left side, around the rib cage, and needed attention from the physio.

The next delivery was a free-hit because Nigam had bowled a front-foot no-ball. Samson clubbed it to long-off but was in so much discomfort once again that he could not run and instead moved to the side of the pitch and clutched his side again. He then decided to retire hurt and was replaced by Riyan Parag.

Samson was on 31 off 19 balls at the time, having added 61 for the first wicket with Yashasvi Jaiswal in 5.3 overs. He had to settle for a peripheral role from there on. Shimron Hetmyer, Parag and Jaiswal were the batters that went out there with the game on the line again but the 11 runs they were able to score wasn't enough.

RR looked favourites to win in normal time. They needed 31 runs off the last three overs with eight wickets in hand, but Mitchell Starc took down a set batter - Nitish Rana (51) - in the 18th over and came back to bowl a 20th over full of yorkers to push the game into extra time.

"I felt that that score was definitely chaseable," Samson said. "The batting line-up which we had, the start which we had in the powerplay, I felt it was definitely a chaseable score. But I think, as we all saw, some fantastic bowling by Starcy in the last over of the innings. I think that's quality from the international. One of the best guys around in the world. So I think I would like to give it to Starcy. I think he won the game for them."

Starc was given the ball again in the Super Over and Samson said the plan against him was "to swing hard, nothing else - swing as hard as possible". "You know he is going to come as hard as possible. You just have to go hard at him back." It didn't work for RR who lost two wickets in five legal balls.

RR are currently in eighth place on the points table, on four points along with Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Mumbai Indians (MI). They lost their first two games of the season, then won the next two, and then lost their fifth and sixth matches before the game against DC.

Their next three fixtures are against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at home on April 19, away against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on April 24, and at home against Gujarat Titans (GT) on April 28.