India’s Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma put on an exhibition with the bat in the fourth and final T20I match at the Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg on Friday (November 15).
Opting to bat first, the visitors got off to a blazing start as the duo of Samson and Abhishek Sharma put on 73 runs for the opening wicket inside the powerplay.
While Abhishek was dismissed for 36 off 18 balls, Samson held the one end firmly. Tilak joined him in the middle as the southpaw came out to bat at No. 3.
The pair of Samson and Tilak made a mockery of the Proteas bowling attack as both of them notched up their second hundred in the series. While the wicketkeeper-batter reached the three-figure mark in 51 balls, it took the southpaw 10 deliveries fewer to get there.
With this milestone, Samson became the first player ever to score three T20 International centuries in a calendar year. On the other hand, Tilak became the second Indian batter after Sanju to score back-to-back tons in T20Is.
The carnage of Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma continued even after they achieved their respective landmarks. While Samson finished with 109 off 56 balls (6 fours and 9 sixes), Tilak stayed unbeaten on 120 off 47 balls (9 fours and 10 sixes) as India racked up a mammoth 283/1 in their allotted 20 overs.
For their jaw-dropping partnership of 210* in just 86 balls, Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma received rich praise from the cricket fraternity on social media platform X.
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