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The nearly-forgotten cricketer who became India's T20 World Cup hero
Sanju Samson scripted the most important chapter of his scarcely believable career when India took on New Zealand in the T20 World Cup final in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
In a World Cup where he was not expected to get many chances, Samson finished as the most valuable player of the tournament after India emphatically beat New Zealand by 96 runs to defend their title.
But Samson was not Player of the Match despite scoring 89. That award was given to fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah. Only days ago, during the semifinal against England, it was Samson who took the award, for an identical score, and at the time he was emphatic that Bumrah should have received the honour.
All credit goes to Bumrah," Samson said after picking up his award in the semi-final. "This should go to him, actually. If he didn't bowl that way in the death overs, I would not be standing here.
This was not just false modesty, it was a mature batter realising that his place in the larger scheme of things had been made so much easier by an ace teammate.
The finer point, though, is that India may not have made it to the knockouts in the first place had it not been for Samson's mature innings.
India's final match of the Super Eights against a strong West Indian team in Kolkata was a virtual quarterfinal.
With an unbeaten 97, Samson laid down the marker. This was an old style innings, not a muscular modern marvel. Samson has the most conventional of set ups, does not move around too much in the crease and every stroke he plays, no matter how far the ball goes, is instantly recognisable as a "cricket shot" by the purists.
Samson's batting is built on precise footwork, balance at the crease and timing. As a wicketkeeper batter, Samson has had to train as hard as anyone else in the team because of the workload he carries.
He is as fit as anyone else, but his strength is rooted in his humble nature rather than the Instagram-worthy six-pack abs sculpted to perfection that most youngsters today seem to aspire to.
But Samson is no youngster.
At 31, Samson has seen a lot of life. When he first played for India, back in 2015, Samson was still a teenager. He was then a product of the Indian Premier League (IPL), having been the bulwark around which the Rajasthan Royals team had been built for years.
If it was the IPL that brought Samson's gifts into focus, it was the domestic Ranji trophy and other similarly unglamorous tournaments that had been the making of the man.
He toiled hard for years, in empty stadiums and in domestic tournaments that don't draw much attention.
Sunday was the culmination of all the hard work he put in and the patience he showed in the past decade.
For an extended period, in which Samson got his chances in the top of the order in T20 cricket for India, his IPL success did not translate into international runs.
In his first 23 innings, he had only one half-century to his name. But Samson continued to trust his method and stayed true to his process even when the results were not coming.
Samson is not the kind of batter who would consistently chip in with middling scores. He's not what you would call safe, in that sense. But when he is good, he is devastating.
This makes his tally of 321 runs at a strike rate of more than 199 in this World Cup staggering.
Samson had played himself out of the playing 11 with poor returns in India's bilateral engagements leading into this World Cup. He was brought in to open the innings to reduce pressure on Abhishek Sharma who was struggling for runs at the top of the order.
If Rinku Singh did not have to leave the team to attend to his ailing father, Samson may not have got that extra chance. Twenty20 cricket is a game of small margins, but it's also one in which you need a sliver of luck to thrive.
Nothing has come easy for Samson.
He spent a lifetime preparing himself for this moment, and during the journey he momentarily showed what he was capable of but without being able to get the kind of success he so clearly deserved.
It was not that Samson changed his style of play in this tournament and became more conscious of putting numbers on the board in order to keep his place. Rather, it was the opposite: Samson finally found himself in a dressing-room whose philosophy matched his.
In the era of high-risk high-reward batting, where contributions were not measured in milestones, Samson became the folk hero who strove only for high impact and was rewarded with consistency by the cricketing gods.
And his name rings out so loud now that Samson's legacy is already made even if his best cricket is yet to come.
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Source: BBC
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