Samson scored his highest T20I score of 77 in 2nd T20I vs Ireland.
India secured a thrilling 4-run victory in the second and final T20I of the series against Ireland, clinching the series 2-0. The visitors posted a mammoth score of 225/7 in 20 overs thanks to Deepak Hooda’s 104 and Sanju Samson’s 77.
However, the Irish team almost chased the total down with captain Andy Balbirnie scoring a half-century and vital contributions from Paul Stirling (40), Harry Tector (39), and George Dockrell (34*), but fell short by 4 runs, finishing on 221/5.
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Replacing injured Ruturaj Gaikwad in the XI, Samson had opened the innings with Ishan Kishan. After Kishan fell for 3 runs, Samson added a record partnership of 176 runs with Hooda, as the duo hammered the Irish bowling.
Following the game, Samson reflected on his knock and during a conversation on Sony Sports’ Extra innings show, former India batter Ajay Jadeja asked Samson if he was disappointed about not reaching the hundred.
"It was a good game. The partnership we had, in that type of condition, there was some movement off the wicket and the bowlers were bowling in the right areas. I think Hooda made it very easy for me. He started hitting from the word go. We communicated really well, I was happy to just give the strike to him when he was hitting like that.
When I started going, he also did the same. I'm very happy for Hooda, and some day, soon, I would like to get to that kind of a score (century). I'm very happy with the way I also batted,” Samson replied to the question from Jadeja on Sony Sports’ Extra innings show.
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However, Jadeja seemingly was unsatisfied with Samson’s answer and said that he thought Samson should have also reached the century, and further apologized for being “a little too harsh” on the batter.
“Glad to hear that, but I'm sad here because I thought you should've gotten one too. And I hope you also start feeling that, because all of us are your big fans here, especially Swanny (Graeme Swann) and me. We would like to see you get those bigger totals when you get in there. Sorry, I'm being a little too harsh because I'm a big fan of your batting,” Jadeja told Samson.
Samson was appreciative of Jadeja’s passionate words for him and his batting and said: “Thank you Ajay bhai, it will definitely keep me pushing. Definitely, I'll try to score lot more runs in the coming games.”
Team India will return to action in the shortest format of the game on July 7 against England at the Rose Bowl.