While the 1st match between the hosts Indian cricket team and the South African team ended in the latter winning the match, there were a lot of positives for the Indian team, especially Sanju Samson, who is been looking in really good form in the last couple of months.
After sealing the T20I series against the Proteas 2-1, the Rohit Sharma led team left for Australia prior to the match for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2022 to be played from the 16th of October.
In that case, Team India fielded a quite a lot rotated team with Shikhar Dhawan leading the team and players like Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan getting an opportunity to showcase their potential.
The match was played at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow where Shikhar Dhawan won the toss and opted to bowl first. However, even after a good start having taken 3 wickets for less than 80 runs, South Africa batters Quinton de Kock and Heinrich Klaasen controlled the inning before the former was dismissed for 48 runs.
But then, Klaasen formed a great partnership with David Miller and helped the Proteas post a total of 249 runs on the board. Keep in mind that the match was revised to 40 overs due to rain interruption.
Chasing the target, Team India lost 4 wickets for 51 runs. But then, Shreyas Iyer and Sanju Samson tried to build a partnership before the former was dismissed after completing his half-century. Meanwhile, Samson continued showing his prowess and remained not out for 86 runs. However, still the Indian team lost the match by 9 runs because Samson didn’t had the strike much to him in the last phases of the match.
However, despite India’s lost, many have come out to praise Sanju Samson for his inning. Even though Samson made his debut for India long back, he didn’t had a continued run with the team and now that he is getting chances, he is taking the full advantage of that.
Meanwhile, former South Africa cricketer and legend Dale Steyn believes that Samson has the quality of range hitting just like Yuvraj Singh. Steyn said that he believes that Samson has the qualities of hitting 6 Sixes in an over and winning the match for India.
“Shamsi was going to bowl the last over and he (Samson) knew he (Shamsi) had a rough day. I was nervous when KG bowled the no ball. Because Sanju is a kind of guy who has the potential of Yuvi (Yuvraj Singh), to hit those six sixes and get team across the line when it needs 30+,” said the former South African pacer.