New Delhi [India], March 6 : Following India's T20 World Cup semifinal win over England, former Indian captain and Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) president Kapil Dev hailed Sanju Samson's fantastic knock in the nail-biting contest and also had a message for out-of-form number one batter Abhishek Sharma.
Kapil was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the PGTI's '72 The League' final. During India's semifinal clash, Samson continued his upward run in the tournament with a clutch 89 in 42 balls, with eight fours and seven sixes. On the other hand, Abhishek's poor run continued as he managed just nine runs in seven balls, falling to off spinners for the third time in the tournament. So far, he has just made 89 runs in seven innings, with a fifty against Zimbabwe as his only important contribution.
Speaking to the media about Samson, Kapil said, "He is a brilliant cricketer. A big player. A player can go off the target sometimes (on Sanju losing his form before the World Cup). That has what happened with Abhishek (in the World Cup), but they are big players, they will come back. And Sanju Samson really played some wonderful cricket in the last two games."
These two knocks for Samson (previously the 97* against West Indies) come after a tough time, being demoted down the order in favour of vice-captain Shubman Gill during the Asia Cup and eventually finding himself on the sidelines for the most part. While he was restored as an opener following Gill's omission from the T20WC squad, a horror series against New Zealand at home, in which he managed just 46 runs across five innings, caused him to lose his spot as a first-choice wicketkeeper-batter, with Ishan Kishan making full use of opportunities given to him following his return to the side after spearheading his side Jharkhand's maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) trophy win as a batter and captain.
Sanju equalled batting icon Virat Kohli's record for most runs by an Indian in a T20 World Cup knockout clash. Virat had also smashed 89* in 47 balls against the West Indies in the semifinal of the 2016 T20 World Cup at the same venue. The Kerala batting star, with his 16 maximums this edition, went past Rohit Sharma's 15 sixes in the 2024 edition to have the most sixes by an Indian during a single T20 WC edition.
In this tournament, Sanju has made 232 runs in four matches at an average of 77.33, with a strike rate of 201.73, with two fifties, and a best score of 97* coming against West Indies at Kolkata in a virtual quarterfinal.
On the message for Abhishek and the team management, as the title clash against New Zealand at Ahmedabad takes place on Sunday, Kapil asked them both to "just believe" and passed on a message of self-belief and optimism.
"Believe in your team, the management must believe in their players, and the player has to believe in himself - that 'I can perform and I will." There is still one match left, the final, and we hope... yes, individuals are important, but when a team comes together and plays as one, that is when you win," he concluded.
Put to bat first, a fiery knock from Sanju Samson (89* in 42 balls, with eight fours and seven sixes) and cameos from Shivam Dube (43 in 25 balls, with a four and four sixes), Ishan Kishan (39 in 18 balls, with four boundaries), Hardik Pandya (27 in 12 balls, with three fours and two sixes) and Tilak Varma (21 in seven balls, with three sixes) took India to 253/7 in 20 overs.
Despite having England down at 95/4, India could not dominate them as Jacob Bethell (105 in 48 balls, with eight fours and seven sixes) and Will Jacks (35 in 20 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes) put a counter-attacking 77-run stand for the fifth wicket. Bethell continued to march on even after Jacks' dismissal and a fiery four-ball cameo of 19 from Jofra Archer took England really close, but not to the finishing line, ending at 246/7.