Sanju Samson made an important contribution in helping Team India win by scoring 97* runs with the help of 12 fours and 4 fours in 50 balls while chasing runs against West Indies in the Super-8 of T20 World Cup 2026. Thanks to Sanju’s innings, Men in Blue won by 5 wickets and secured their ticket to the semi-finals. Whereas Sanju broke a great record of Virat Kohli with this innings.
After playing the innings of ‘Virat’, Sanju has now become the batsman who played the biggest innings for India during the run chase in the T20 World Cup. Earlier, the record of making the highest individual score during the run chase in the T20 World Cup for India was held by Virat Kohli, who played an inning of 82* runs (against Australia in 2016 and against Pakistan in 2022).
India had a target of 196 runs
Let us tell you that in the match, West Indies, batting first, scored 195/4 runs on the board in 20 overs. Team India had a target of 196 runs to win. India’s start in the run chase was also not very special. Apart from Sanju, no other batsman of the team could even touch the 30-run mark. Sanju stood aside and won the entire match single-handedly.
Bad form kept him out of playing 11
The thing to note is that due to poor form, Sanju did not even get a place in the playing 11 at the beginning of the tournament. In the match against Namibia, Sanju was given a chance in place of Abhishek Sharma. Abhishek could not play in that match due to stomach problem. Although Sanju could not do much. He was out after scoring 22 runs.
Then Sanju got a chance against Zimbabwe in Super-8. However, in that match too he could score only 24 runs. But his bat spoke loudly in the important match against West Indies.
