IND vs SA: Sanju Samson enhances his white-ball credentials
Sanju Samson was the lone warrior for India (PC: Twitter)
India and South Africa faced off in the first match of the ODI series at Lucknow. In a riveting contest South Africa held their nerves till the end and won the match by just 9 runs.
The standing captain of team India, Shikhar Dhawan won the toss and decided to field first. South Africa was provided with a solid start by Quinton de Kock (48 off 54), on which David Miller ( 75 off 63) and Heinrich Klaasen (74 off 65) later capitalised to take the team's total to a decent 249 in 40 overs.
In the chase India was rattled early and were reduced to 51 for 4 in the 18th over of the innings. Sanju Samson walked in at this stage and continued to bat till the end nearly taking India to a victory. But in the end his 86 off 63 was not enough to see India through.
The new finisher in the town
Team India has been struggling to find a man to entrust the role of a finisher since MS Dhoni hung up his boots. But the way Sanju Samson played today, he might be the ray of sunshine at the end of the long tunnel. His innings was perfectly planned and it appeared as if he knew the right time to change the gears.
Also, the belief that he showed in his own capabilities was comforting to watch as an Indian cricket fan. Samson took the game deep and kept on believing that the match is not over till the last ball is bowled. A look into his innings will give us an idea of how Sanju perfectly planned out his knock.
Sanju Samson's innings progression
So as the figure suggests its was planned in his head. He took time to get settled and rotated the strike at the beginning to keep the scoreboard ticking. And then when he saw the need and the scope and also found the bowler of his choice the strike rate sky rocketed to nearly 300.
The fact that Sanju was well aware of his strengths can further be stressed by getting an overview of his scoring areas during the knock.
Sanju Samson's scoring areas
The figure shows that Sanju was well aware that mid-wicket is his area and he scored the majority of his runs from that zone. This gives us an idea of how aware the young batter is about his own art.
The miscalculation
All said and done, Sanju's presence in the middle gave glimpses of immaturity on which he can further work.
- On the last ball of the 38th over Samson was beaten. He decided not to run for the bye, this resulted in Avesh Khan getting the strike at the beginning of the penultimate over. An experienced finisher would have gone for the run, even if that meant sacrificing the wicket of the tailender.
- On the 3rd ball of the 39th over, Avesh top edged a delivery after facing two dots. The duo ran a couple on this delivery once again denying Samson the strike.
This lack of awareness meant that Sanju Samson, the settled batter, the man who could have taken India home at that stage was denied the strike for 5 balls. In these five balls India was able to score just 2 runs and lost a wicket. This in turn haunted India in the last over, where Sanju was left too much to score of the 6 balls, even when the bowler was an off form Tabraiz Shamsi.
But this will surely add to Samson's experience and when faced with the same situation later, he will probably know better to firm the strike. But for this match, the scintillating knock remained an 'unfinished business'.
 "Probuddha Bhattacharjee")
