SunRisers Hyderabad batting coach Hemang Badani revealed that past failures had adversely affected Abdul Samad and wanted to prove his worth to the franchise. The former Indian cricketer pointed to the game against the Kolkata Knight Riders and how badly Samad wanted to finish it well against the Rajasthan Royals.
Abdul Samad cashes in on Sandeep Sharma's lapse:
The 21-year-old held his nerve during the high-scoring contest against the Royals in Jaipur got the required 17 runs in the final over. The right-hander capitalized on Sandeep Sharma's no-ball and smacked a six off a slot delivery to take the Orange Brigade past the 214-run target.
Badani applauded Samad for taking full ownership of the position the SunRisers were in. Elaborating on the conversation with the youngster, the 46-year-old said:
"I have to give full marks to Samad. He was the first one to come up to me after the last game (vs KKR) and said 'I should have finished the game'. He took ownership of it. He didn't finish well and was unhappy about it. "He was thinking that 'I am a retained player and I want to show the team that I am worth its time and investment. A few sides have tried doing certain things against him and we have worked on that. One of them did come off this evening,"
Abdul Samad glad his father watched him finish the game against the Rajasthan Royals
In a candid chat with Abhishek Sharma after the match, Samad stated that he couldn't contain his happiness as his father also watched the game. The Jammu & Kashmir cricketer said:
"I felt lucky at that time and I think that I got another opportunity to finish. In the last ball I was very confident that he bowled a no ball and that meant that I had to finish the game. So on the last ball, he missed his yorker, I hit it for a six. Very grateful and I was very happy because my father was watching the game and I really enjoyed it."
Despite Samad's heroics, Glenn Phillips took the Player of the Match award for his 7-ball 25.
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