With his knock of 89 runs off 42 balls against England in the T20 World Cup semi-final at Wankhede Stadium on Thursday evening, Indian batsman Sanju Samson scored the fifth highest score by a batsman in an ICC T20 World Cup knockouts. With England batsman topping the list with knock of 105 runs later in the evening, it was Samson who had the last laugh at the end with India managing a seven-run win over England to enter the final. Samson, who had played a knock of 97 runs against West Indies during India’s win over West Indies during India’s last Super 8 clash in what was the virtual quarterfinal, has now scored back to back half-centuries in the T20 World Cup. As India faces New Zealand in the T20 World Cup final at Ahmedabad on Sunday, former Pakistan captain and coach Rashid Latif believes Sanju Samson has to be the man of the tournament and his knock against England was like a computer batting against bowlers.
“Sanju Samson jis tarah se batting hai, aisa laga jaise computer batting kar raha tha. (The way Sanju Samson batted, it felt like a computer was batting). What spinner or what pacers. He got the momentum so fast especially after getting dropped by Harry Brook. and then he does the wicketkeeping in the match silently. We did not even get to know. He is a fantastic composed player and the way he carried on the momentum in both the matches (against West Indies and England), in my eyes, Sanju Samson should be the player of the tournament. The way he has played cricket, we all have been astonished. And the credit goes to the Indian team management that they trusted him even after his loss of form. And Sanju Samson has delivered with a punch,” Latif said on the show Haarna Mana Hai.
Riding high on Samson’s knock and some impactful knocks by batters like , and Tilak Verma meant that India posted a total of 253 for 7, the second highest total in T20Is scored at Wankhede Stadium. With England losing four wickets for 94 runs, Jacob Bethell played an almost match-defining knock with his 48-ball 105 before India won the match by seven runs. Latif’s fellow commentator and former Pakistan opener Ahmed Shezad shared how the Indian batsman went for posting a total above 250 runs and had it been the Pakistan team, they would have contended with a total close to 225 runs. “It was a very close match. Any team could have won it. I guess India benefits from the kind of infrastructure they have built. and all prepare the players for such stages. It has benefitted them a lot. They way their players absorb pressure, it helps them to get past the crush moments. They were clear that on that kind of pitch, they had to get past 250 runs. Sanju Samson was phenomenal but then the batsman who came at the later stage also played like that. The kind of shots Tilak Verma played against jofra Archer were phenomenal too. Tilak knows that two fielders are up and Jofra Archer will bowl a Yorker at the wicket and Tilak pre-mediated his shot and made the yorker a full toss with going back and hitting the six. The second six he hit, it came as he knew that Jofra Archer would bowl a slow one or a short one and he hit the six. If it was Pakistan, we would have finished on 225 and would have put the onus on our bowling. But the Indian batsman knew that on that pitch, they needed to get past 250. And that’s what won them the semi-final,” Shehzad said.
Samson had spoken about how he and Ishan Kishan had discussed that 250 runs were possible at the Wankhede pitch on Thursday evening. “It feels great. I knew I got some form going from the last game. I thought I needed to make the most out of my form and gave myself extra time. We know no score is stoppable so we wanted as much as possible. England came close, played really well. It was a good semi-final. You need to assess conditions. We have played a lot of cricket here and we know chasing is easier. But the way myself and Ishan batted, we knew 250 should be possible,” Samson said post the win.
