Samson hits 97 not out, West Indian bowling flounders in Kolkata as India arrange World Cup semifinal towards England.
Printed On 1 Mar 2026
Sanju Samson produced one of many calmest innings below the strain of a run chase to ship India into the semifinals of the T20 World Cup with a five-wicket win over the West Indies in Kolkata.
Samson, who returned to the Indian taking part in XI within the earlier match after being ignored for the three video games previous to it, remained not out on 97 as India pulled off a formidable win in entrance of a packed Eden Gardens crowd on Sunday.
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The wicketkeeper-batter was the one Indian participant to attain greater than 30 runs because the defending champions confronted the Maroons in a winner-takes-all Tremendous Eights recreation.
Within the course of, he recorded the best rating by an Indian in a T20 World Cup run chase, going previous Virat Kohli’s 82 towards Australia in 2016 and Pakistan in 2022.
The co-hosts will now face England within the second semi-final in Mumbai on Thursday, whereas New Zealand and South Africa will meet within the first last-four match on Wednesday in Kolkata.
Samson’s cool manner within the face of a excessive goal and an expectant house crowd laid the inspiration of India’s chase after they misplaced star batter Abhishek Sharma within the third over.
The 31-year-old from southern India then took management of the innings, hitting common boundaries in his 50-ball knock . Samson’s 97 not out got here off 12 fours and 4 sixes.
Whereas he loved transient help from India’s prime and center order batters, none crossed the 20-run mark till Tilak Varma scored 27 off 15 balls in a 42-run partnership with Samson.
India’s captain Suryakumar Yadav (18) and Hardik Pandya (17) have been the opposite contributors to the entire, which was sealed with two boundaries off Samson’s bat within the final over.
West Indian pacers Shamar Joseph and Jason Holder picked up two wickets apiece as their teammates struggled to manage the stream of runs off Samson’s bat.
Earlier, a 68-run opening partnership between captain Shai Hope and Roston Chase gave the West Indies a swift begin to their innings.
Chase, who scored 40 off 25 balls, was the extra aggressive of the 2 openers as he made essentially the most of his dropped catch by Abhishek Sharma to tackle Axar Patel and Jasprit Bumrah within the first six overs.
Hope was dismissed for 32 after a sluggish innings and changed by in-form batter Shimran Hetmyer.
The event’s fifth-ranked main run – scorer sped his method to 27 off 12 balls earlier than falling caught behind to Bumrah.
India appeared to be in management quickly after because the West Indies have been diminished to 119-4 within the fifteenth over , however a robust end from Rovman Powell and Jason Holder took the 2012 and 2016 champions to 195.
Powell was unbeaten on 34 and Holder on 37 off 22 balls as they appeared to place the pre-tournament favourites below strain in entrance of a packed Eden Gardens.
Bumrah was the choose of the Indian bowlers with two essential wickets off his 4 overs.
Pandya and Varun Chakravarthy picked up the opposite two West Indian wickets.
