Sanju Samson, who was elected ‘Player of the Match’ after scoring 89 runs in his aggressive innings of 42 balls in the T20 World Cup semi-final against England, said here on Thursday that Jasprit Bumrah should get the maximum credit for this victory.
In this high-scoring match, Bumrah took one wicket for 33 runs in four overs. He put pressure on the England batsmen by giving just six runs in the 18th over of the match. After scoring 253 runs for seven wickets, India restricted England to 246 runs for seven wickets.
Samson, who hit eight fours and seven sixes in his innings, said, “We are very happy with the team’s performance today and full credit for it goes to Jasprit Bumrah.” I think he is a world-class bowler, a once-in-a-generation bowler and he showed that today. Actually this (Player of the Match award) should go to him only.
“If we had not bowled like that in the last overs, I probably would not have been standing here,” Samson said at the awards ceremony. Therefore, full credit goes to the bowlers, who showed confidence in themselves in difficult circumstances and performed brilliantly.
When asked about his innings, he said, “I am feeling very good.” Since the last match, I felt that my rhythm was coming back. I gave myself a little extra time and got good results. As I said earlier, you have to assess the circumstances. We have played a lot of cricket at Wankhede and chasing the target becomes a little easier here.
Samson said that while batting with Ishan Kishan, he felt that a score of 250 runs could be made on this pitch. He said, “The way we batted after Abhishek was out, especially the partnership between me and Ishaan, we felt that a score of 250 was possible here.” We were talking about the same thing in the dressing room.
The batsman, who played an unbeaten inning of 97 runs against West Indies in the last match, said about missing the century, “As far as the century is concerned, I believe that a century is not made by thinking, it comes automatically in the process of the game. It is not like Test or ODI that you can change the pace up or down. When you are batting first, you have to play aggressively continuously. In the end, if you reach the right position then you never know how many runs can be scored.
He said, “I am happy with the number of runs I have scored and the most happy thing is that I could contribute to the victory of my team and my country.”
