Sanju Samson 100* vs Lucknow Super Giants – 2023 IPL

Lore & Background

By the time IPL 2023 rolled around, Rajasthan Royals had shed the early-season optimism of their 2008 title and were in a rebuilding phase. Sanju Samson, who had been with the franchise since its inception in 2008, had finally been handed the captaincy and the No. 3 or No. 4 batting slot with the full weight of expectation behind it. The Lucknow Super Giants, a new franchise in their second season, were a tough test—aggressive bowling, a young squad hungry to prove themselves.

Samson's response was almost philosophical in its calm. He did not flinch. Ball after ball, he rotated the strike with a patience that belied the 50-ball window, then—when the moment came—unleashed a series of shots that turned the stadium into a cauldron of pink. The 100* was not merely a score; it was a narrative reset. It told every sceptic that the franchise's soul was not in a foreign import's contract but in a boy from Kerala who had bled for this jersey for fifteen years.

In the broader canon of RR history, the innings sits alongside the 2008 title run and the 2013 playoff push as a moment where individual brilliance and team identity fused. Fans still reference it in the same breath as the franchise's founding mythology: 'That's when we knew Samju was *ours*.'

In Their Own Story

The floodlights hummed. The pitch, a Jaipur oval baked hard by the evening sun, offered just enough grip for the LSG bowlers to think they had a seam angle. Samson, in his pink and gold, settled into his guard with the quiet ritual of a man who has done this a thousand times in nets, in first-class cricket, in the long seasons before the IPL cameras found him. The first few balls were tentative—defensive, yes, but controlled. Then the partnership clicked. A single. A double. The scoreboard ticked upward like a metronome. By the time he reached fifty, the crowd had stopped counting and started *feeling*. The final twenty balls were something else entirely—pulls, sweeps, a straight drive that the bowler could only watch leave the face of the bat. When he walked off at 100*, the stadium erupted in a sound that was less a cheer and more a release, as if fifteen years of waiting had finally exhaled. He raised his bat. The Pink Army roared. And somewhere in the dugout, a new dynasty had been announced.

Reader's Guide

The scene: Lucknow Super Giants have set a target. Rajasthan Royals, under captain Sanju Samson, are in the middle of their innings. The early wickets have fallen, and the chase is wobbling. Samson, the wicketkeeper-batter from Kerala, is at the crease with the weight of the franchise on his shoulders.

The turning point comes when Samson, rather than playing for the dot ball, decides to seize the initiative. He starts rotating the strike with crisp back-foot work, finding the gaps that the LSG bowlers keep leaving. Then the tempo shifts. A pull. A straight drive. The scoreboard jumps in twos and threes. The 50-ball window that the bowlers hoped would contain him becomes the canvas for something extraordinary.

100*. Not out. Fifty balls. The stadium—packed in pink—erupts. Samson walks off with his bat raised, the quiet Kerala boy who has been the constant in every RR dressing room since 2008 finally delivering the innings that made the franchise feel like *his* franchise.

Why it lives in Pink Army memory: it was the moment the captaincy stopped being a title and became a promise. Every RR fan who was there that night carries the sound of that final over in their chest like a second heartbeat. It is the innings they tell their kids about. *That's* when we knew.

Did You Know?

• Sanju Samson has been a Rajasthan Royals player since the franchise's very first season in 2008, making him one of the longest-serving members in the team's history.
• The 100* was scored in just 50 balls, making it one of the fastest centuries of the 2023 IPL season.
• Samson took over as Rajasthan Royals captain in 2023, and this innings came during his first season leading the side.
• Samson is from Kerala, making him one of the few non-North-Indian players to become the face of a franchise rooted in Rajasthan.