 "Sanju Samson steered India to a victory in their must-win clash against West Indies. AFP")
Sanju Samson on Sunday played the most consequential innings of his career as his unbeaten 97 helped India advance to the T20 World Cup semifinals with a victory against West Indies at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday, March 1.
Samson mixed aggression with composure to help India chase down a daunting target of 196 in the must-win clash against West Indies. Samson faced 50 deliveries and smashed 12 fours and four sixes in his match-winning innings.
After the match, Samson revealed how, during his bad phase, he shut out the noise by switching off his phone and social media.
Samson says he backed himself
Samson entered the T20 World Cup with a series of failures against New Zealand. His technique came under heavy scrutiny and poor form cost him a place in the Playing XI for the tournament.
However, Samson revealed that he backed his technique and switched off his phone to keep the noise out.
“A lot of people had suggestions and I saw a lot of valid points, but at the same time I felt, ‘Sanju, you have scored three international hundreds with the same setup.’ Shot selection was something I kept working on. I did not want to change too much because I knew I had performed with the same setup,” Samson told Star Sports after the win.
“I kept believing in myself, switched off my phone, switched off social media and listened to my own self and my close people. I am very happy it happened in a very special game,” the 31-year-old said.
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He also said that during his bad patch, negative thoughts had started creeping in but he worked on his game and bounced back to play an innings which will now be remembered for a long time.
“Our human nature is that we often start from a negative thought like, ‘Can I do it? I don’t think I can.’ When I have that thought, I try to alter it with a very positive one,” he said.
“When I had a series like New Zealand where I wanted to perform and be part of the World Cup team, things did not work out well, but luckily I got a 10-day gap. I did not play any games and was not in the side. I kept thinking, ‘Sanju, what else? Why didn’t it work? What else should I do?’ So I did some soul-searching. I worked on my base, how I set myself up, and came back to it.”
“More than a hundred cricketers in India dream about a day like this. I dared to dream. A young guy from Trivandrum, Kerala, dreaming about playing for the country and winning a game in such a crucial match. I dared to dream and it happened,” the wicket-keeper batter said.