On Thursday, Sanju Samson and the Rajasthan Royals squad got absolutely dominated by Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore despite making a phenomenal comeback by their middle order batsmen.

Struggling at 43/4, some unprecedented hussle by Shivam Dube, accompanied by Riyan Parang and Rahul Tewatia elevated their final score to a respectable 177 by the end of the 20th over.

"The game puts you down, but you have to dust yourself and get back up." pic.twitter.com/TXrHcjjMtd

— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) April 22, 2021

However, the extremely quick outfield and the fast pitch offered by Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium turned out to be the biggest allies of RCB openers Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal who chased down the total completely on their own without losing a single wicket in the process.

While Kohli played his highest-scoring innings of this season (72* off 47 deliveries), Padikkal went on to make his debut IPL century (101* off just 52 balls) as the duo brought home the victory with 10 wickets and 21 deliveries to spare.

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On one hand, the Kohli-Padikkal duo is being praised for their incredible batting masterclass, things did not seem to be nearly as pleasant for Samson, who got blasted by fans and critics the same.

Again why does Rajasthan Royals exist in IPL??
Sanju Samson is such a disastrous captain and their management!!!! In fact a dream11 user can make a better team combination than #RR #rr

— Bandya (@DandyaNhiBandya) April 22, 2021

Did Sanju Samson learn inconsistency from Ajinkya Rahane.

— Ravi Motwani (@raviM1407) April 22, 2021

Samson always had a superhit trailer and the flop season #SanjuSamson #ipl #RRvsRCB

— Anunay Surana (@anunaysurana) April 22, 2021

Nothing taking away from #Devduttpadikkal but bowling from #RR was subpar. Also we saw very bad captaincy by #SanjuSamson. #RCBvsRR #RCBvsRR #Kohli

— Vaibhav Goel (@RealVaibhavGoel) April 22, 2021

Former Indian cricketers and legends also expressed their dismay with Samson’s inconsistency as a batsman while touching upon why this might be the very reason the Men in Blue have moved on from in in the longer formats of the game on multiple occasions.

Irfar Pathan for instance tweeted:

Sanju Samson so much talent but not so much commitment to play every ball on its merit.

— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 22, 2021

"First and foremost, the captain has to stand up and deliver. He did it in the first game but that has been the problem with him. That is one of the reasons why he has not been featuring in the Indian team is that he scores runs in one game and then he looks to do it and carry on as if he’s batting in the next game from the same game, and that's how he keeps getting out," Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports ahead of the match.

At an individual level, Samson lost his wicket in a fashion his fans have seen way too many times. On the first delivery he connects and strikes a six and the next delivery, he gets completely outplayed and ends up throwing his wicket carelessly.

However, some of his loyal fans continue to back him up despite one of the most embarrassing defeats in the history of the league.

Why people hating/trolling #SanjuSamson for no reason...

— Samyak Jain (@shi_nuu_) April 22, 2021

BLAMING CAPTAINCY IS THE EASIEST JOB.
TODAY'S VICTIM " SANJU SAMSON "
ONE BAD DAY, JUST LEAVE IT. MOVE FORWARD.#RR #HallaBol #RRvsRCB @rajasthanroyals

— Aravind RAL (@aravind_ral) April 22, 2021

Well done #rcb and I want to say sanju Samson need more time for his captaincy. He need learn from today match

— Ankit Dhimmar (@AnkitDhimmar8) April 22, 2021

I see people judging Sanju Samson's captaincy. Not fair on him being compared to anybody else 🏻
He could turn out to be one of the best. He's a gem of a player and should be given atleast one more season of captaincy to be judged upon.#SanjuSamson #RR #IPL2021

— Aakash Kapoor (@AakashSkyKapoor) April 22, 2021

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