Punjab Kings win despite special Sampson hundred

Chris Gayle hit 40 off 28 balls as the Punjab Kings withstood a Sanju Sampson hundred to beat the Rajasthan Royals by four runs on Tuesday.

The Jamaican came in at the fall of the first wicket and added 67 for the second wicket with KL Rahul (91) in only 43 balls.

Rahul and Deepak Hooda (64) then added 105 for the third wicket before the latter was dismissed with 15 balls remaining in the innings.

Punjab would add only 27 runs in the final 2.3 overs to end on 221/6 in their 20 overs

They lost three wickets during that time including that of Nicholas Pooran for a golden duck.

Two of those wickets went to Chetan Sakariya (3/31), who made the initial breakthrough for the Royals.

Rajasthan Royals were 25/2 before Sampson and Jos Buttler (25) added 45 for the third wicket in 4.1 overs.

The Rajasthan skipper then added a further 53 runs for the fourth wicket with Shivam Dube (23) and 52 with Ryan Parag (25).

Sampson, who was making his debut as Rajasthan skipper, brought up his hundred off only 54 balls to keep his team in the hunt.

With 21 needed off the last two overs, Rajasthan lost Rahul Tewatia (2) first ball of the 19th over and eventually got seven runs off the over.

Thirteen runs were needed off the final over with Sampson on strike but the Rajasthan skipper and Jhye Richardson could only get eight runs of the first four balls.

With five runs needed off the final two balls, Sampson drilled the penultimate straight to long-off and declined the single.

With a six required off the last ball, Sampson could not clear deep cover and the Punjab Kings won the match by four runs.

Summarized scores: Punjab Kings 221/6 in 20 overs (KL Rahul 91;  C Sakariya 3/31) vs. Rajasthan Royals 217/7 in 20 overs (S Sampson 119; A Singh 3/35). Punjab Kings won by 4 runs