Before Sanju Samson’s 97 in Kolkata: How 15 balls reignited India’s T20 World Cup campaign

Sanju Samson, who guided India to a five-wicket win over West Indies to reach the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup in what was effectively a quarter-final between the two teams, fell to his knees, looked up to the sky, grateful and relieved, perhaps thanking the cricketing gods in Kolkata’s ‘Garden of Eden’.

India captain Suryakumar Yadav took his hat off to Sanju, the right-handed batsman who hit a career-high unbeaten 97 off 50 balls on Sunday.

While Sanju will be best remembered for his 97 in Kolkata, it was his brief but momentous innings against Zimbabwe three days ago that gave momentum to India’s T20 World Cup campaign.

India won four of the five games before Sanju returned to the starting lineup against Zimbabwe, but there were clear issues with the batting that everyone could see.

There is a problem with the top-level order

India has been without Samson in 4 of these 5 matches and the highest score their opening partnership has scored in these games is 8 runs. In the only match Sanju played, against Namibia (when Abhishek was out due to illness), Samson and Ishan Kishan opened the scoring with 25 runs off 12 balls.

Apart from Ishan’s knocks against Pakistan (77 off 40) and Namibia (61 off 24), India’s top four, including Surya and Tilak Varma, also faced strike rate issues in these games, as the table below shows.

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Strike rate of India’s top batsmen in first 5 matches of T20 World Cup

The opener got off to a rocky start as the mid-table side struggled to score quickly, which was double trouble for the defending champions India. This was mainly due to the Indian batsmen struggling in the match.

India has six left-handers in the top eight, effectively leaving itself vulnerable to left-handers. The opposition’s Erasmus, Agas, Ayoubs and Duts followed suit.

India faced more turnovers than any other team in the group stage – 102 passes. Of the 13 teams facing at least six non-spin overs, only Nepal (5.25) and Oman (5.42) have scored at a lower rate than India’s 6.23 per over.

India’s troubles with off-spin bowling were first exposed by Gerhard Erasmus when the Namibian skipper took four wickets in the group stage, three of them against left-handers. Pakistan took their chance when their captain Salman Ali Agha, a part-time spinner, took the new ball and dismissed India opener Abhishek Sharma.

India continued the trend in their final group match against the Netherlands, with off-spinner Aryan Dutt batting first. He first bowled another duck to Abhishek Sharma, his third in the tournament, before sending his partner Ishan Kishan back to the dugout in the fifth over.

Notably, Abhishek has not shown a weakness against off-spin before; in fact, he has a career strike rate of 171.1 against off-spinners in the powerplay format in T20Is. However, given the slow nature of the tournament, he seems to have been out of his comfort zone compared to the IPL and T20 bilateral matches India have played at home in the past two years, conceding two wickets in the three games in the group stage.

Meanwhile, Abhishek’s opening partner Ishan Kishan does face trouble with the off-spinners. In all T20Is, Kishan has scored at a strike rate of just 76.9 against off-spinners in the first 6 overs. Even though he was in good form, that didn’t change at the T20 World Cup. The left-hander has a strike rate of just 115.8 against off-spin in the powerplay, which is his lowest score against all types of bowling.

In comparison, Sanju Samson’s strike rate against off-spinners in the powerplay T20Is is 188.2.

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“Matlab Abhishek ki jagah khilau?”

By the end of the group stage, it was clear that India’s two left-handed openers had a tough matchup against off-spin.

It is clear that South Africa will use their off-spin options if Ishan and Abhishek open the innings in India’s first Super 8 match. India skipper Suryakumar Yadav was asked at the pre-match press conference if India would consider bringing back right-hander Sanju Samson to deal with South Africa’s spin threat? He replied, “Matlab Abhishek ki jagah khilau? (Should I play him instead of Abhishek?)”, “matlab Tilak ki jagah khilau? (You mean instead of Tilak?).”

Suryakumar Yadav smiled sarcastically while replying to reporters, as if the suggestion was taken out of context.

But as predicted, the story repeated itself as South Africa captain Aiden Markram himself took to the bowling alley with the new ball and dismissed opener Ishan Kishan for a duck. India lost the match by 76 runs, which put them in a do-or-die situation.

How has India’s destiny changed?

India’s next Super Eight match is against Zimbabwe in Chennai, with Sanju Samson back in the starting XI. He opened the match with Abhishek and gave India a brilliant start of 48 runs. More importantly, starting with Sanju, India managed to keep the off-spinners away from the new ball.

When Sanju was dismissed in the fourth over, India was already at 48 and Abhishek Sharma was already in the lead. Sanju, who scored 24 off 15 balls, completed the task given to him brilliantly and was praised by head coach Gautam Gambhir and the support staff after class.

Sanju’s presence did wonders for the Indian team in the match. Opener Abhishek Sharma had scored just 15 runs in the previous match, including 3 ducks, but he later recovered and scored a half-century. India scored 256 runs in the first innings and defeated Zimbabwe by 72 runs.

India finally pulled off a convincing victory in this World Cup, with a team that once seemed off the rails finding momentum. Sanju Samson turned the tables with his knock of 24 runs off 15 balls.

Against West Indies on Sunday, India equaled the highest number of targets in the history of the Men’s T20 World Cup (196), surpassing the previous record of 173 set against South Africa in 2014.

Sanju Samson’s 97 is India’s second-highest score in the Men’s T20 World Cup, behind Suresh Raina’s 101 against South Africa in 2010. This is India’s highest score in the T20 World Cup chase, surpassing Virat Kohli’s 82 not out against Australia in 2016 and Pakistan in 2022.

India captain Suryakumar Yadav, who a few days ago had questioned “kiski jagah khilau?” bowed to Samson in gratitude.

Kolkata’s 97th anniversary will be remembered. It secured a semi-final berth and will be among the best teams in India’s T20 World Cup. But it was Samson’s 15-ball 24 against Zimbabwe in Chennai that revitalized India’s T20 World Cup journey and they now look like a formidable side heading into the semi-finals.