Hard lengths and changes of pace were India’s allies in the virtual quarter-final against the mighty West Indies in Kolkata, where dew accentuated the brisk outfield to empower Sanju Samson to utilize his gift of timing in a successful chase of 196, their highest in T20 World Cups. It was a script intimately familiar to the one that played out in Ahmedabad last week, when South Africa had six of the top seven Caribbeans caught before Aiden Markram took advantage of an easing pitch to anchor the pursuit with his natural, risk-free game.
A decade ago, Daren Sammy was leading West Indies to their second T20 World Cup title with a batting strategy that placed heavy emphasis on hitting boundaries. They’ve clobbered 76 sixes in this edition, but on the flipside, the endeavour to clear the rope relentlessly keeps the opposition in the hunt. A fine proponent of the slower ball that he learned from Dwayne Bravo during his time at Chennai Super Kings, Lungi Ngidi operated along with Kagiso Rabada and Corbin Bosch to have West Indies reeling at 83/7. The Indian pace pack also created enough chances by banging deliveries into the surface and employing variations, but on either side of the 9-15 overs phase that yielded four wickets at the cost of 59 runs, poor fielding allowed partnerships worth 68(53) and 76(35) to blossom.
Arshdeep Singh leveraged the extra bounce at Eden Gardens to ding the splice of the bat and the dry spell brought about a desperate swish from Shai Hope against Hardik Pandya. He had a new opening partner in Roston Chase and communication proved to be an issue, but India’s bid for an early breakthrough was quashed by Varun Chakaravarthy who hurled a throw at the wrong end. Abhishek Sharma dropped a dolly to offer Roston Chase another reprieve and he proceeded to 35(18), though the PowerPlay bore testimony that skidders from the 6-8m zone were hustling the West Indians into jeopardy.
In the T20I series in South Africa, they thumped 173/7 at the low-scoring Boland Park, 221/4 in Centurion, and 114/3 at the Wanderers where rain reduced the innings to 10 overs. Zimbabwe were blown to the smithereens recently with a total of 254/6, so India were obviously smirking at the fact that Hope had faced 17 dots in a knock lasting 33 balls. ‘’Probably didn’t start as well as we wanted to with the bat,’’ the skipper admitted.
India, on the other hand, rode on the sublime strokeplay of Samson upfront. He opened up the off-side to thread Akeal Hosein past the ring and swept aerially as the left-arm orthodox overcorrected his line. Under pressure, he dropped it short and invited a fierce pull. While Abhishek showed a lack of awareness in attacking the spinner despite a bounty of 17 runs, Samson marked his guard again after completing the half-century with a sensational cut off Gudakesh Motie, whose hands could not intercept a gun-barrel drive off Romario Shepherd to long-on that evidenced the technical commitment of the right-hander even at the halfway stage.
It was at that juncture that West Indies lost the plot previously. Much like how South Africa rotated their speedsters, Jasprit Bumrah was summoned at different periods, the most crucial being the entry point of Shimron Hetmyer, the record holder for most sixes in a single edition of the T20 World Cup. The positive match-up remained intact – 6 dismissals in 23 balls in T20s – thanks to the hard length and a trademark cutter drew the curtains on a promising effort from Chase. ‘’He’s their main strike bowler and whenever he’s got the ball in his hand, something is going to happen. It was really good on their part to come and break that partnership there, especially in that situation when Hetty was going really well in the tournament,’’ Hope analyzed.
India could’ve had three in a jiffy but Tilak Varma tipped Sherfane Rutherford’s short-arm jab over the bar off Axar Patel; his last over of the quota slid in tactfully with two new men at the crease. Their catching efficiency of 71.7% is the worst among the Super 8 teams, having put down 13 catches so far, the eventual of those a life to Rovman Powell who’d smacked 24 off Arshdeep, including a lusty blow over square leg. The finishing kick, supplied in the august company of the long-levered Jason Holder, harked back to the meeting with Proteas. Their resuscitating 89 was the second best partnership for 8th wicket or lower in T20Is.
With experience of 177 IPL fixtures behind him, Sanju trusts his ability to up the tempo when required and could hence afford to stabilize himself a bit after the departure of Suryakumar. Heading into the 13th over, just 6 runs had come off the last 12 balls. 32 were plundered in the next dozen, as Samson squeezed out a yorker from Chase through the vacant backward point region after Tilak’s assault on Shamarh Joseph.
As Samson’s cut reached the fence despite three fielders protecting the off-side Jason Holder grimaced in disappointment, the realisation of a dream slipping away writ large on his face as the battle-hardened Chetta, Malayalam for elder brother, aced the contest with textbook grace and an unflappable demeanour. He fetched 12 fours and 4 sixes, holding his shape right till the home stretch as a whippy maximum off Joseph put India on the brink of victory.
‘’As soon as I wanted to accelerate, we were losing wickets. So I wanted to build a partnership. I have only played maybe 60 games, but I’ve seen around 100 and I’ve seen how the greats like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have finished the job, how they change their game depending on the situation,’’ Samson expressed.
‘’I’ve always had a very special journey with lots of ups and downs but I kept on believing. I never felt that I will do something special like this, but I was just focusing on my role and taking one ball at a time. Very grateful. I think this is one of the greatest days of my life.’’
