Steve Smith was a delighted captain as Rajasthan Royals ended their home leg with a convincing seven-wicket win and also kept their hopes alive of making it to the playoffs.
“It’s a good end to our home season with a win, Livingstone was magnificent and got us off to a good start. Samson then finished things nicely.” said Smith in the post-match presentation.
“We are finally winning those important moments in the match and have been fortunate in the past few games. We need to continue winning and you never know, I am with the team for the next game in Bangalore. Hopefully can finish on a winning note and the boys end well in Delhi.”
Sunrisers skipper Kane Williamson meanwhile credited Royals for playing better cricket overall.
“We had a potentially competitive total at the halfway mark but they kept wickets in hand and did better than us. We couldn’t get those breakthroughs. Hopefully we can learn from our mistakes and get better."
Williamson also praised Manish Pandey, who registered back-to-back half-centuries.
“He’s playing with freedom and putting in some great performances. Let’s hope he can continue with that. Hopefully, playing at home we can also put up some good performances.”
Royals’ bowler Jaydev Unadkat received a much needed boost in confidence after he was named man-of-the-match for his figures of 2/26.
“All I can say is I needed this. I have had a tough time and this will boost my confidence. The management has backed me in these tough moments. They had a good powerplay but then it got harder and harder. We took pace off the ball and had fielders in the right areas, which really helped.”