Kumar Sangakkara’s ultimate show of respect for Dhruv Jurel’s father after RR youngster invites family on to the ground

Rajasthan Royals director of cricket and head coach Kumar Sangakkara displayed a warm gesture towards Dhruv Jurel's father after their 7-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants on Saturday night. Jurel smashed his maiden half-century versus LSG to give strong support to his skipper Sanju Samson in the 121-run stand to help his team register a sensational win with an over to spare.

His innings was laced with five fours and two sixes as the 52-run knock showcased his talent on the big stage.

After scoring his maiden fifty, Jurel celebrated the feat with a salute celebration which he later revealed that it was dedicated to his father, who was in the army earlier. "I always play for my papa, I did so during the Test match as well. He was then in the army, he was there today and that was for him," he said.

Jurel's family entered the ground to celebrate Jurel's knock, and the Royals won. The young batter hugged his father and took him to Sangakkara who was also standing there in the back. The RR head coach removed his cap when he saw Dhurv's father, and the two also shook hands.

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The RR batter opened up on his batting approach while batting in the lower-middle order, where he was assigned the role of one of the finishers in the side.

“I just wanted to finish the match whenever I got a chance ( during batting). It's always a blessing / curse (playing in the middle-order), I just wanted to stay until the end and finish the game for my team. I will have to practice, in the batting PP, you have just two fielders outrside the ring, during the middle-overs, you'll need to find the gaps and get the big hits going as there are 5 fielders in thew deep, that's what I was looking at. I started well, but my shots went straight to the fielders. Sanju then told me to calm down, don't go too hard, take my time and then I got 20 runs in an over and that got me going,” he told broadcasters.