Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: After guiding India to a historic five wicket win over the West Indies in Kolkata on March 2, Sanju Samson was elated. “ It was one of the greatest days of my life. It means the whole world actually to me. I think right from the day I started playing, started dreaming to play for the country, I think this is the day I was waiting for. And I’m very grateful, very thankful,” he said.
His unbeaten 97 off 50 balls was not merely a match-winning innings; it was the defining performance of India’s campaign in the T20 World Cup, sealing a semifinal clash with England. Samson’s innings was shaped as much by experience as by temperament, forged through years of watching and learning from the sidelines.
“Yeah, I think that’s why I have been playing this format for a very long time. I think playing IPL around 10 to 12 years and playing for the country from last 10 years, I have not been playing, but looking from the dugout, learning from the greats like Virat Kohli, from Rohit Sharma, like all the greats. I think it’s very important to observe and learn and see what they were doing. I think that really helped me to, I think with my experience, I have only played maybe 50, 60 games, but I’ve seen around 100 games and I’ve seen how the greatest people have finished the games and how do they change their game according to the game,” he added.
Chasing 195 in a virtual quarterfinal, Samson showed remarkable composure, adjusting his tempo as wickets fell around him.
“So I think the last game we were batting first, so it was all about setting a very high score. So that’s how I wanted to go big right from ball one. But this game was completely different. I think as soon as I wanted to go a bit higher, we were losing wickets. So I think I wanted to build a partnership, wanted to keep focusing on my process.
