Suryakumar Yadav said India deserved to be in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup 2026 and lauded Sanju Samson for his brilliant unbeaten 97 that helped the hosts beat West Indies by five wickets in Kolkata on Sunday.
After losing their first Super Eight match to South Africa, it was required of India to win their next two games and stand a chance of qualifying to the last-four. Now, India will meet England in the semifinal in Mumbai on March 5.
“Obviously it’s a great feeling. It was like a quarterfinal game. The way the boys showed character, it was a great thing,” Suryakumar told the broadcaster after the match.
When asked about Samson’s match-winning innings, the India captain said it is his hard work on the sidelines that has paid off.
“I always say good things happen to good people who wait. It’s all his hard work that he was doing when he wasn’t playing and now he’s got the fruit,” Suryakumar said.
“The way we played from the first game, I think we deserve to be there in Mumbai. But we won’t think of it now. We will take the flight, get to Mumbai and see what to do. When there is no pressure, there is no pressure,” he added.
Suryakumar revealed that India wanted to take the game deep and with the dew around 200 was always a good score to chase.
“I feel everyone bowled according to the plans. We knew 200 is always a good score to chase. The ball comes on to the bat nicely because of the dew and our plan was to take the game deep.”
On the other hand, West Indies skipper Shai Hope said his side was a few runs short on the board.
“Maybe a few (runs) short, especially on a chasing ground such as this. Probably (we) could have gone a bit more (hard) at the end. Sanju played a really good innings as well, have to give him credit. But it would have been good if we got a few more runs,” Hope said.
He said the West Indies players adapted really well to different conditions in the tournament.
“The way we adapted to different conditions, got to give the guys credit. Specially bowling in the powerplay. Akeal (Hosein) was very good, (Gudakesh) Motie as well once he came back in the team.
“Just couldn’t get over the line today. You never want to end at this stage. One more game and we’d be in the semis and things go well and you’re in the final for the big one,” he added.
