Sanju Samson played a stunning knock on his IPL captaincy debut, taking Rajasthan Royals to the brink of a win against Punjab, but not quite over the line as he was dismissed last ball with his side needing five runs to win.

The focus, though, was on the penultimate ball when Rajasthan needed five runs to win off two balls. Arshdeep Singh bowled a full, wide delivery that Samson smashed to deep extra cover. Even as his partner Chris Morris hurried across for a single, Samson turned his back to the non-striker and denied the single to keep strike.

Morris was visibly taken aback by it, as were a lot of fans on social media. As Samson perished in an attempt to clear the ropes off the final delivery, the voices arguing Samson shouldn’t have denied a single to Morris, who is known to be a more capable slogger at the death, grew.

Great run chase, but Samson’s brilliant one man show ends in agony. Should he have taken single off second last delivery? I think he should have trusted Morris who can olay shots too. Heartbreak for RR, Punjab will not be believing their luck

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) April 12, 2021

Same Sanju samson denied single against struggling tewatia in last season and we know what happened next 🧐

— R G (@ramgopal_vanga) April 12, 2021

Sanju Samson denied the single to Chris Morris.

That was over-confidence.#PBKSvRR #RRvPBKS #IPL2021

— T#€ 🅱💙🆖 Gu¥ (@SarkarSpeaking) April 12, 2021

They paid 16.25 crores for Sanju Samson to turn Chris Morris back for the single.

#RRvPBKS pic.twitter.com/VLoDP7wUvj

— Brajesh Pandey (@its_brajesh) April 12, 2021

However, Samson had a lot of backers too with several citing he was right to turn down the run given the way he had been batting until that time.

Greater possibility of Samson hitting a six in that form than new batsman in Morris hitting a four. Right call by Samson to keep strike last ball I thought.

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) April 12, 2021

Don’t think denying the single was the wrong move IMO.

— Sarah Waris (@swaris16) April 12, 2021

Not necessarily. It’s whether you think Samson is more likely to hit a 6 than Morris is to hit 4 or 6. The way Samson was hitting it I can see why he would have confidence in himself.

No wrong answer really https://t.co/shzLCGkxRZ

— Jimmy Neesham (@JimmyNeesh) April 12, 2021

What’s your take on Sanju Samson denying the single before the final ball with 5 to win?

I can understand the move. He was outstanding and was a better chance of hitting a 4 to tie or 6 to win than Morris who had just come in.#RRvPBKS #RRvsPBKS #IPL2021

— CricBlog ✍ (@cric_blog) April 13, 2021

I think that was the right move by Samson. However would Sanju Samson have denied the single if he was not Captain? Wonder how the mind works!! #PBKSvsRR

— Gaurav Sundararaman (@gaurav_sundar) April 12, 2021

Don’t get fooled by Morris’s reaction after that denied single. Was absolutely the right call from Samson, the former couldn’t even connect a single ball properly. Tough luck.#RRvPBKS

— Sujay Kumar (@thisladfilms) April 12, 2021

Absolutely no issue with Sanju Samson turning that single down and backing himself to hit a six for a win. That’s elite confidence. Morris was batting on 2 off 4 at the other end. Sensational game awareness for me, almost pulled it off too. #IPL2021 #RR

— Vinayakk (@vinayakkm) April 12, 2021

Kumar Sangakkara, the Rajasthan Royals Team Director, later backed Samson’s call to deny the single in the post-match press conference.

“I think Sanju backed himself to get the job done and he nearly did,” Sangakkara said at the post-match press conference. “He was five or six yards short of hitting the last ball for a six and sometimes when you know you’re hitting the ball well and you’re in form and you believe that you can do it, you’ve got to take that responsibility. And it was really encouraging to see Sanju do that.

“We can always talk about a missed single here or there but the crucial thing for me is the players’ belief in attitude and commitment and they know what their strengths are. And Sanju took it upon himself to finish that game and he just fell a few yards short. That happens, but the next time I’ll believe he’ll hit it that 10 yards further to win us the game.”