Sanju Samson played a valiant knock of 86* despite South Africa winning the first ODI against India at Lucknow on October 6, 2022. Samson took the game deep enough after India had lost 4 early wickets and along with Shreyas Iyer and Shardul Thakur, kept India in the game until the last 2 overs.
Thanks to 48 from Quinton de Kock and then a 139*-run partnership for the 5th wicket by Heinrich Klaasen (74* in 65 balls) and David Miller (75* in 63 balls), took South Africa to 249/4 in 40 overs, after the match had to be shortened due to rain.
In reply, India was reduced to 51/4 in 18 overs, but then Shreyas Iyer (50), and Shardul Thakur (33) kept Sanju Samson company as the keeper-batter switched gears and almost took India to a win with a brilliant knock of 86* in 63 balls with 9 fours and 3 sixes, as the Men in Blue finished on 240/8 and lost by just 9 runs.
Sanju Samson talked about his knock in the post-match press conference and shared how he planned his innings in the chase.
“I love spending time at the wicket, especially in India colors. We play to win the match. I fell short by just two shots – one four and a six. I will try to make up for that in the next match but I am happy with my contribution. South African bowlers were bowling really well but Shamsi was going a little expensive so we thought we can target him. I knew he had one over left so if we needed 24 runs, I was confident that I could hit four sixes. So I was taking it deep. That was our plan,” Samson said.
Needing 30 runs off the last over, Samson hit Tabraiz Shamsi for one and three boundaries to garner 20 runs but it was not enough. Interestingly, he didn’t play a single ball in the 39th over which was played by tailenders and probably resulted in India needing 30 runs in the last over.
He also talked about the surface which offered both pace and spin to bowlers, thanks to persistent rains for the last three days.
“If you have noticed South Africa's innings, you could see it was difficult to make runs with the new ball. After 15 overs (David) Miller and (Heinrich) Klaasen batted really well, it became easy. The ball wasn’t moving. Batting became easy after 15-20 overs,” Samson said.
“I made 80 odd runs but I also made mistakes. It was a learning lesson for us and we would look to make up for that in the next match. We have some space to improve but we also need to look at the batsman we are bowling at. Someone like David Miller is the best finisher in the world at the moment and bowling against him in this ground was very challenging.
We responded decently I think. No-a-days 50 runs in 5 overs has become easy but definitely we can improve. They are a very experienced team so we will have a very challenging series ahead,” Samson signed off.
The second ODI will be played at Ranchi on Sunday.
(PTI inputs)
