India as a cricket team has always been a treasure for batters. No doubt the bowling legacy from India too has its own history but batters from India which comes from different parts from a multi diverse country has its own fragrances . The likes of Legendary Sunil Gavaskar , Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar , Modern Master Virat Kohli has always been the toast of the cricketing world being called as the Legends of the game .
Apart from them India also had produced batters who has flair and style in their techniques with the likes of Ganguly, Laxman , Dravid, Rohit Sharma taking the centerstage. The reason to call upon these names of batters is only to underline the different style they had during the approach of their batting. One can associate Rohit Sharma as hard hitting and swashbuckling but on the other hand can associate Dravid with poiseness and calmness.
With such diversity in the techniques in batting hardly India has found the batter who is poised as well as swashbuckling and hard hitting at the same time. And there comes a story of this Kerala batter who has both the elegance of Dravid and the Hard hitting of Rohit Sharma. Sanju Samson right from his playing years at domestic or Indian colors since 2021 has been a curious case of study for all the cricket fans and experts.
Spotted as a young and bright wicketkeeper who bats tremendously well Sanju Samson always remained under the radar of the BCCI selectors who for some strange reasons snubbed or ignored to give him regular chances. In-fact somewhere Sanju also has to blame himself for not availing those chances when he got to represent India at the highest level thus doing injustice to his own talent.
However Thursday seemed to be different as Sanju Samson slammed his first century of ODI cricket and guided India to the competitive score of 296 for 8 after being put to bat in by South Africa on a tricky wicket at Paarl in the series decider with ODI series draw level at 1-1.
This century came on the backdrop of events where Sanju Samson owing to his own failures wasn’t consider for the World Cup squad in 2023 and only given chance when the seniors decided to rest in the ODI leg of SA series in which he was again criticized by the cricket experts for poor lack of intent and application on the cricket field in the Second ODI of the Three match series which led to India’s loss in the second match.
Very happy to achieve a ton – Sanju Samson
After guiding India to the competitive total in the first innings, Sanju Samson seemed relieved with his performance at the highest level and expressed the same during the mid match session with thee commentators on air.
Samson said that he felt emotional after reaping the reward of his hard work. The 29-year-old shared that the conditions were challenging, especially in the latter part of the game.
The wicketkeeper-batter also shared the game plan as the Men in Blue maximised the last 10 overs, scoring 93 runs to help the visitors post a respectable total on the board.
For the unversed, the Kerala batter smashed 108 off 114, including three maximums and six boundaries. He also shared a 116-run partnership with Tilak Verma who scored a handy 52 runs to help the visitors recover from 101-3.
Samson said in the mid-match show:
“Feels really emotional, going through the emotions now. Very happy to achieve this. Have been putting in a lot of work physically and mentally, happy to see the results go my way now,” said Sanju Samson.
“They bowled really well with the new ball, and the older ball was getting slower and more difficult to bat. So after KL got out, they had the momentum where Maharaj was bowling very well,” he stated.
“But me and Tilak stuck it out and went strong at the end. We were playing an extra all-rounder today, so me and Tilak had decided that we have to go hard from the 40th over onwards.” he added.
Sanju Samson’s timely ton arrived well for India as India went ahead to bowl out South Africa for 216 runs to win the match and the series. This ton will also be able to convince the selectors that the 30 year old batter has it in him to make it big at the bigger stage and if given consistent chances could be an asset to Indian cricket in future.