Image: Sanju Samson vs West Indies / © X (Twitter)
However, Sanju continued to have severe problems, not just with low scores, but with consistent problems with his technique, which caused him to be dismissed early in each match. Not only was he getting out on the first ball, however, but he also got out similarly, and on a similar delivery type, each time. And finally, instead of displaying his normally calm and composed mannerisms, he exhibited an unusual amount of anxiousness.
Samson moved in and out of the Indian side some four times over the preceding fortnight, straddling the recent T20 series against New Zealand and then Sunday night’s virtual T20 World Cup quarter-final match against the West Indies.
In the short time since then, he moved in and out of the Indian side four times. His performance proved, again, that the vast areas of waiting and anticipation can be found even while a hitter is experiencing an upward surge of confidence and hitting all of the right spots.
When he faced the West Indies in the 2nd ball of the 7th over of his initial chase against them for 196 runs on Sunday, it appeared he was still and waiting indefinitely for a pitch. Then he hit the ball “good” and, simply by execution, produced some unusual (unexpected) areas to hit into.
[The] last game [in Chennai against Zimbabwe], 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.
Samson said at the post-match presentation.
As soon as I wanted to go a bit higher, we were losing wickets, so I wanted to build a partnership and wanted to keep on focusing on my process.
At times, Samson eases off the accelerator with the bat (the choice not to play large shots) and generally lowers the height at which he plays the ball than when he normally would play large shots. Nevertheless, he scored 24 runs from 13 balls in the powerplay and had 37 runs from 17 balls with spin, while his teammates combined for 21 runs from 19 balls other than him. He faced fifty balls and had the highest strike rate (by a significant amount) of all players on the Indian team who faced at least 5 balls.
There were no anchor innings in which other batsmen were able to hit into the air quickly and get out. It was a quiet but relentless innings on a day on which everything was going Samson’s way. Many things were going on around him, but he never lost his composure, and whenever India looked like they might be in trouble, he always found a way to relieve that pressure.