‘Happy to contribute to India’s win’:No regrets for Sanju Samson after missing back-to-back hundreds

India defeated England by 7 runs in the T20 World Cup semi-final played in Mumbai, securing a spot in the final. Sanju Samson’s brilliant innings of 89 runs off 42 balls was crucial to the team’s victory, for which he was chosen as the Player of the Match. After receiving the award on Thursday night, Samson said that Jasprit Bumrah was the true deserving recipient of this honour. Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav praised the team’s fielding, while England captain Harry Brook admitted that dropping Samson’s catch proved costly for his team. Samson said – Bumrah is a ‘once in a generation’ talent Samson said at the presentation ceremony, “I want to give this award to Bumrah. He is a world-class bowler, a player who comes once in a generation. Today, he delivered just that. If he hadn’t bowled that way in the death overs, perhaps I wouldn’t be standing here today. All credit goes to our bowlers, who trusted themselves in difficult conditions.” A mountain of runs on Wankhede’s pitch Samson said about his innings, “It’s an incredible feeling. I knew my form was good from the previous innings (against West Indies). I gave myself some time and thought I should make the most of this form. No score is safe at Wankhede, so we wanted to score as many runs as possible.” No regret about missing a century Despite playing a brilliant innings of 89 runs, Samson missed out on a century, but he said it didn’t bother him. He said, “Scoring a century is not a goal in T20. Here, you just have to score runs consistently and quickly.” When you lead your team to victory, it doesn’t matter how many runs you scored. I am very happy to contribute to my team’s win.” There was pressure to make it to the T20 playing eleven in the New Zealand series After the match, Sanju said in a press conference that under the pressure of securing a place in the T20 World Cup playing eleven, he tried too hard in the home T20 series against New Zealand. This was the reason why he couldn’t score big runs in that series. Samson’s performance against New Zealand was not good, and Ishan Kishan opened with Abhishek Sharma in his place. However, Samson got another opportunity to break the continuous presence of left-handed batsmen in the team, and he capitalised on it. Samson scored two consecutive half-centuries. In the semi-final, he played a match-winning innings of 89 runs off 42 balls against England. Before that, he had scored an unbeaten 97 runs against the West Indies in the previous match. Worked on the basics of the game during a bad phase – Sanju Sanju revealed that after a bad phase, he worked on the basics of his game again. He practised more and tried to keep himself calm. During this time, he spent time with his close ones and distanced himself from social media. Samson said that he even switched off his phone to reduce external noise and focus in the right direction. According to him, this helped him a lot in focusing. Incredible feeling, proud of the boys After the victory, captain Suryakumar Yadav looked very emotional during the presentation. He said, “This is an incredible feeling. Playing in India, captaining a fantastic team, and reaching the World Cup final is very special.” I was very nervous; during the match, my heart rate must have been around 160-175. The entire team and support staff are excited about going to the final. Surya praised Samson’s innings Suryakumar praised Samson, saying that he knew what to do as soon as he came to the crease. He said, he knew the wicket was good and what he had to do. Whenever a wicket fell, he did not let the run rate drop. He reaped the rewards of his hard work over the past year today. It was a special innings. Bumrah and the bowlers turned the tide Captain Surya also praised Bumrah. He said, we all know what Bumrah is capable of. He once again proved that he is a match-winner. The bowling by Bumrah and Arshdeep in the death overs was incredible. Fielding coach T. Dilip’s hard work paid off After the match, Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav spoke about the team’s fielding. He said, we have to give credit to our fielding coach T. Dilip. Our fielding was not that good earlier in the tournament, but the boys worked on their skills and put in extra efforts for the team. The players have worked very hard on fielding even after their individual training, the result of which was visible on the field today. During England’s innings, Axar Patel dismissed Captain Brook with a spectacular dive on the boundary. On the other hand, he took an excellent catch on the boundary to break the dangerous partnership between Jacob Bethell and Will Jacks. England coach Brendon McCullum also admitted that those two catches taken by Axar Patel were the biggest reason for the match’s outcome. Dropping Samson’s catch proved costly – Brook On the other hand, England captain Harry Brook admitted that dropping Samson’s catch proved costly for his team. Brook had dropped Samson’s catch at 15 runs during the semi-final, after which the Indian batsman played a brilliant innings and changed the course of the match. Brook said, “They say catches win matches. Unfortunately, the ball didn’t stick in my hand. That happens sometimes. After that, Samson played a brilliant innings and perhaps that innings won the match for India.” He also said that as the match progressed, he constantly felt that Samson’s innings was impacting the match. Brook said that looking at the scoreboard, he felt that England would now have to play a big innings themselves to win, but that couldn’t happen. Failed to implement the strategy correctly – English Coach England coach McCullum said that his team could not properly gauge the pitch’s bounce. He said, the length that seemed right to us at Wankhede was falling a bit short due to the extra bounce. Jofra Archer has a good record against Sanju, but after that catch was dropped, Sanju took control of the match, and we came under pressure. We could not implement our strategy correctly on the field.