Sanju Samson produced a match-winning 97 not out as India defeated the West Indies by five wickets in a must-win Super 8 match of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026. They will face England in the semi-finals at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on March 5. Sunil Gavaskar and Abhishek Nayar lavished praise on Samson’s batting prowess, India’s chase, and Jasprit Bumrah’s two wickets in an over.
Sunil Gavaskar hailed Sanju Samson’s knock against the West Indies:
“This knock of 97 not out takes the weight off not just Sanju Samson’s shoulders, but off everyone who knows what a fine player he has been. He has had ups and downs, and we have felt them too because he is such a nice guy. Everybody wants him to do well. All Indian cricket fans will be happy that this sincere cricketer has got the success he deserves. To be the Man of the Match in a must-win game is a dream come true. You could see the emotions on Sanju’s face after he hit the winning runs. He was three runs short of a hundred and it would have been fantastic had he reached the three-figure mark. But maybe another hundred is on the way in some other match. It was not an easy target to chase down, but this set of players didn’t give up and they pulled off the unbelievable.”
On how India managed to rotate strike during the chase:
“Having a set batter at one end is very beneficial. The other batter can look to knock singles and give more strike to the set batter. That way, there are not too many dot balls. In T20 cricket, the idea is to have as few dot balls as possible. I think the Indian team has realized that. If you look at the teams with the lowest percentage of dot balls, India are pretty high up there. I am not saying they are the best, but they are up there. That is where half the battle is won. Out of 120 deliveries, if you score runs off 80 to 85 balls, you give yourself a real chance to chase scores like 190 to 200 and India did exactly that against the West Indies.”
Abhishek Nayar spoke about how Samson finally got his moment after waiting for so long:
“It was an unbelievable innings by Sanju Samson. It has been a rollercoaster ride for him in the last couple of years. He got those centuries in South Africa after scoring so many runs there, then got demoted to number five. We watched him in Australia. He was out of sorts because that was not his natural position. From there, he fought his way back into the Indian side and found a place in the T20 World Cup squad. Then Ishan Kishan replaced him. He was looking for a spot again. He got just one game in the group stage against Namibia, then finally got a go against Zimbabwe. He got some runs and then he did this. A special innings of 97 runs. He played very differently from how he has played in the past. It was very measured, controlled and aggressive.”
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On how Jasprit Bumrah changed the game in one over:
“Jasprit Bumrah is a cheat code. You bring him with the new ball, in the middle overs, or at the death. He never disappoints. He always delivers. The wicket of Shimron Hetmyer set it up for India. Hetmyer was looking very dangerous in these conditions. As a fast bowler, you think yorker or a bouncer. But to bowl a length ball there and get a wicket is very difficult to execute. Then he bowled a brilliant slow ball to get rid of Roston Chase. That broke the back of the West Indies batting. Both batters were set. To get two set batters in one over just demoralizes the opposition. Bumrah was brilliant as ever.”
