Protagonist scripts are not written better than this. When he struck three T20I centuries in 2024, it finally felt like it was Sanju Samson’s time to hog a place in the Indian team after almost a decade of trial.
But 2025 brought with it a cruel twist of fate as Samson was first pushed down in the middle order when Shubman Gill was picked in the Asia Cup.
Gill’s underwhelming form meant Samson was back in the side. But on the eve of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, he lost his opening spot to Ishan Kishan due to contrasting forms.
Now, on a heady night at the Eden Gardens, Samson finally scorched an innings that will be remembered for a long time, while the ICC No. 1 T20I batsman, Abhishek Sharma, has been struggling for runs and fluency in this tournament. And a knock that helped him secure his spot at the top of the order, at least for India’s next match: the semi-final against England.
A virtual quarter-final. A tall run-chase of 196 runs. None of his teammates scoring more than 27 runs. This was the ultimate holy grail for Sanju Samson and his fans, who have time and again run the “justice” gang on social media.
“It means the whole world actually to me,” Samson said after receiving his Player of the Match award in the IND vs WI fixture in Kolkata, where his 97* powered the hosts through to the semi-final.
India will take a flight to Mumbai, where they will meet England on March 5 in the semi-final. On the flight, though, they will carry memories of Samson’s knock, which was truly outstanding in nature: while Samson remained not out on 97 and hit the winning runs, none of his teammates managed even 30 runs.
Although India avoided the ignominy of crashing out of their home T20 World Cup, the Men in Blue will hope others step up with the bat against England.
In the partnership graph of India’s innings, Samson’s name was constant while his partners kept changing. Samson smoked 12 fours and four sixes in his sizzling record-breaking hand; all other Indian batsmen combined to hit only two sixes and one four more than Samson.
Talking about some of the records that were shattered by Samson in the IND vs WI clash, the biggest of them is that he broke Virat Kohli’s record for the highest individual score by an Indian batsman in a run chase in the T20 World Cup.
Kohli had held the record for 10 years for his 82* in what, incidentally, was also a virtual quarterfinal against Australia in Mohali. Now, this record belongs to Samson for his 97*.
The 196 India chased down in Kolkata is now their highest successful run chase in T20 World Cup history, moving ahead of the 176/4 they achieved against South Africa in the 2014 T20 World Cup semi-final in Mirpur.
Fans on Twitter hailed Sanju Samson for his fantastic knock. Let’s check out some tweets.
IND vs WI: Twitter Erupts As Sanju Samson Storms India Into Semi-Final
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