Alright guys, let me walk you through how I tackled this Hardik vs Samson player impact deep dive. Been itching to compare these two since that last MI vs Royals nail-biter.
The Spark & Initial Chaos
First thing I did? Woke up Wednesday, brewed a stupidly strong coffee, and fired up my laptop. Knew the IPL website’s stats section was clunky, but dove in anyway. Typed “Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals” into their search bar – total mess. Stats dumped on the screen like alphabet soup, all seasons mashed together. Scrolled for ages feeling like an idiot. Finally spotted the head-to-head filter. Clicked that sucker. Relief!
Sifting Through The Noise
Even then, pages and pages of numbers smacked me in the face. Needed focus. Zeroed in on all-time player records specifically for MI vs Royals clashes. Took me three coffee refills scrolling through every name since 2008. Finally saw Hardik Pandya and Sanju Samson pop up. Grabbed every single number listed next to them:
- Runs scored (across every match they ever played in this fixture)
- Balls faced (gotta get the strike rate)
- Average (of course)
- Not outs (especially important for finishers)
- Dismissals (who got ’em out?)
- Even hunted down catches & run-outs involving them, ’cause fielding pressure counts!
Spreadsheet Hell & Cold Pizza
Copied all this garbage into a new Google Sheet – faster than Excel for me. Formatting was a nightmare. Pasted rows were a disaster. Spent an hour fixing it, deleting extra columns, aligning numbers. Labeled one sheet “Hardik H2H”, another “Samson H2H”. Tried a pivot table? Brain froze. Aborted. Just manually started typing simple formulas: =SUM for runs, =AVERAGE for, well, average… felt like coding spaghetti but dumber.
Lunch? Cold pizza slice grabbed while staring at strike rates. Samson’s numbers against Jasprit Bumrah practically jumped off the screen. Nearly choked on my crust. Had to triple-check that column. Yup. Weirdly good against Bumrah.
Spotting the Gems
The more I looked, patterns screamed louder than my neighbor’s dog:
- Hardik’s Late Show: His death over stats (overs 16-20) were insane. Strike rate over 180! Basically turns into a wrecking ball against Royals’ bowling at the end.
- Samson vs Spin: Royals often send him early-ish. His numbers against spin in MI-Royals games? Solid. Average like 45+? Way better than I expected.
- Where They Get Stuck: Hardik kept getting trapped LBW against Royals’ slower balls early in his innings. Samson? Chahal and Jadeja have snagged him quite a few times. That surprised me less.
Putting it All Together
Scribbled the main takeaways on a sticky note stuck to my monitor:
- Hardik = MI’s late-stage chaos king vs Royals.
- Samson = Royals’ steady(ish) hand against spin early/middle.
- Bumrah vs Samson is a weirdly crucial sub-plot.
- Royals’ slower balls early = big threat to Hardik.
Took screenshots of the messiest parts of my sheet (for “authenticity”, ha!), wrote a couple of blunt paragraphs pointing out the key stats, threw in those screenshots, and hit publish. Felt good getting that messy process into something someone might actually read. Hope it makes sense for the next clash!
