Sanju Samson starred with the bat for India in the series-deciding third ODI against South Africa at Boland Park, Paarl on Thursday (December 21).
Invited to bat first, the visitors lost both the openers, Rajat Patidar (22) and Sai Sudharsan (10), early. Samson arrived in the middle at No. 3 and resurrected the Indian innings on a challenging wicket. He added 52 runs for the fourth wicket with skipper KL Rahul (21) and followed it with a 116-run partnership with Tilak Varma (52).
In the process, Samson reached his half-century off 66 balls while he notched up his maiden ODI century off 110 deliveries.
Samson was dismissed in the 46th over by Lizaad Williams but not before the right-hander scored 108 off 114 balls. His knock was studded with 6 fours and 3 sixes.
In the death overs, Rinku Singh produced a stunning cameo (38 off 27 balls) to propel India to a highly competitive total of 296/8 in 50 overs.
For his classy century on a difficult pitch, Sanju Samson received rich praise from the cricket fraternity on social media platform X.
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