SYNOPSIS: Sanju Samson showed he has come of age, scoring a second consecutive century that powered India to 202/8, a total they comfortably defended thanks to their two spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi.
A short 56-metre boundary on one side; a strong wind from the beach side to factor; a South Africa attack that lacked X-factor and a pitch that narrowed down the margin of error for bowlers. The conditions at Kingsmead, Durban for the first T20I was straight out of fantasy for any batsman. And Sanju Samson made full use of it, capitalising on the ideal conditions, the 29-year-old put on a glorious stroke-making exhibition, becoming the first Indian to post successive centuries in T20Is.
The century ensured India had 202 to defend, a total that seemed par but not beyond South Africa’s reach, especially given their firepower. After Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan provided breakthroughs in the powerplay, India still had to overcome Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller. And in successive overs (11 & 12),Varun and Bishnoi picked up two wickets each to pull the plug on the chase as India won by a margin of 61 runs. The two spinners picked up six between them while conceding only 53 runs in eight overs that brought the game in India’s control.
Earlier, after a spellbinding 47-ball 111 against Bangladesh in the last T20I India played, Samson followed it up with 107 that came off just 50 deliveries on Friday. After a turbulent start-stop international career that began in 2015 which has seen him play 34 matches in the shortest format, Samson now appears totally in place.
India’s Sanju Samson in action. (Reuters)
Promoted as an opener after India’s T20 World Cup triumph, the slot seems to have opened up Samson to bring out his natural attacking instinct. After beginning with successive zeros in Sri Lanka, successive centuries have now firmly established Samson’s place in the T20I set-up.
Despite the conditions being heavily loaded in favour of the batsmen, it wasn’t all doom for the bowlers. As Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee showed in the last four overs, if they showed discipline and showed imagination with their variations–lengths especially–there was a lot to gain. With clever change of pace and well executed back of a length deliveries and slow short deliveries – the two pacers gave away only 27 runs in the last four overs and accounted for four wickets as India from a strong 175/4 could only manage 202/8. Given the lack of batting depth, where Arshdeep Singh was slotted to bat at No 8, it was commendable that India didn’t shelve
their new found approach in the format.
Samson power
And in need of a total in excess of 200 on this pitch and also factoring in South Africa’s batting might, India needed one of their top order batsmen to bat long and big. And Samson single-handedly ensured he did both while also ensuring the run-rate stayed over 10 an over as long as he stayed in the middle. Given the odds to overcome, South Africa’s plan in the powerplay–though it didn’t yield much success–was understandable. With India packing the batting order with left-right combination, South Africa were prepared to bring on the spinners in the powerplay. With fielding restrictions in play and India bound to come hard, they kept Jansen and Coetzee for the back.
ndia’s Sanju Samson celebrates after reaching his century. (Reuters)
And Samson wasted no time to free his arms. After finding a boundary of Aiden Markram, he greeted Keshav Maharaj with a boundary and a six. Samson’s game plan against the spinners, including the leg-spinner Nqabayomzi Peter was simple :anything that was pitched up or given some air would be treated with total disdain and straight in the V. If they erred in length and bowled it marginally short, Samson would drop back in a fraction and deposit it with all his power over mid-wicket. Six of his 10 hits over the boundary came off the spinners with Peter alone feeding four of them.
The seamers, barring the exception of Andile Simelane, were not generous with their full deliveries. But here is where Samson showed why he is special: A couple of pick up shots off Jansen and a lofted cover drive off Simelane were pure treat. Blessed with a good hand-eye co-ordination, the last moment shuffle, where Samson would go deep inside the crease, repeatedly unsettled the seamer’s length. It made him get below the ball and also fetch enough elevation.
After removing Abhishek Sharma in the fourth over, South Africa were then at the mercy of Samson and Suryakumar Yadav, who played a second-fiddle to the opener. Once he departed in the10th over after a 66-run stand of 37, Tilak Varma would ensure the tempo didn’t just drop but also picked up in the middle overs as he put on 77 run partnership off just 34 deliveries.
But like Surya, even the southpaw struggled at times with his timing. However, with Samson unperturbed, India’s run-rate remained in control.
In the middle-overs both Samson and Varma showed no respite as the hosts’ attack struggled to deal with the short boundary on one side. Patrick Kruger, especially was short of ideas, as he became all the more predictable in the two overs he sent down.
With a short-leg side boundary to defend, the wide yorkers were surprisingly missing, and as he rolled as lower one, Varma got on his knees and swept him over square-leg for a six. India did lose their way in the end, but the bowlers ensured it wasn’t costly.
BRIEF SCORES
India: 202/8 (Sanju Samson 107,Tilak Verma 33; Gerald Coetzee 3/37) bt South Africa: 141 (Heinrich Klaasen 25; Varun Chakravarty 3/25,Ravi Bishnoi 3/28)
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