In order to maintain his confidence throughout a difficult period that culminated in a game-winning knock in the crucial T20 World Cup encounter against the West Indies, India opener Sanju Samson turned off his phone and social media accounts.
In the crucial Super Eight match in Kolkata on Sunday, Samson hammered a 50-ball 97, interspersed with 12 fours and four sixes, to lead the team home in a difficult chase of 196.
In order to break up the left-handed monotony of the failing top-order of the reigning champions, the 31-year-old was brought back to the opening position after India’s crushing defeat to South Africa in the Super Eight opener.
“Shot selection was something I kept working on. I did not want to change too much because I knew I had performed with the same setup, so I kept believing in myself, switched off my phone, switched off social media and listened to my own self. I am very happy it happened in a very special game,” PTI quoted Samson as saying after India’s five-wicket win on Sunday.
With some assistance from captain Suryakumar Yadav (18) and Tilak Varma (27), Samson was a lone warrior against the Windies.
“It was a bit of a difficult chase. Looking at our batting power, I felt that chasing 190-odd at Eden Gardens, when dew comes in, gets a bit easier, but losing wickets at regular intervals made it challenging,” the wicket-keeper-batter acknowledged.
“To be honest, that’s where my experience and my role played a big part. I got a good start, but when the wickets kept falling, I felt I needed to finish the game and take it till the last moment.
“Normally you feel like doing it, but it doesn’t happen all the time, so I am very grateful it happened in this game…when you are chasing a score like this in a pressure game, you take different options and play more boundaries rather than looking at risk-taking options,” he added.
Samson explained the adjustments he made to his technique while discussing his run of disappointing scores before the Windies clash, which included the home series against New Zealand.
“Our human nature is that we often start from a negative thought like, ‘Can I do it? I don’t think I can.’ When I have that thought, I try to alter it with a very positive one. When I had a series like New Zealand where I wanted to perform and be part of the World Cup team, things did not work out well, but luckily I got a 10-day gap,” he said.
“I did not play any games and was not in the side. I kept thinking, ‘Sanju, what else? Why didn’t it work? What else should I do?’ So I did some soul-searching. I worked on my base, how I set myself up, and came back to it.
“A lot of people had suggestions and I saw a lot of valid points, but at the same time I felt, ‘Sanju, you have scored three international hundreds with the same setup’,” he added.
When asked what the Kolkata knock meant to him, Samson replied that he feels fortunate to be living out a dream that he nurtured since childhood.
“More than a hundred cricketers in India dream about a day like this. I dared to dream. A young guy from Trivandrum, Kerala, dreaming about playing for the country and winning a game in such a crucial match. I dared to dream and it happened,” he said.
