Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], March 8 (ANI): Indian batter Sanju Samson delivered a crucial performance in his redemption arc, scoring a brilliant 89 in the T20 World Cup final against New Zealand at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday, registering the highest individual score in a T20 World Cup final.
Samson’s impressive run continued as he went past Virat Kohli to become the Indian batter with the most runs in a single T20 World Cup. He also joined Kohli and Shahid Afridi on an elite list of players who have scored fifties in both a T20 World Cup semifinal and final.
The hard-hitting batter produced a superb 46-ball 89, hitting five fours and eight sixes at a strike rate of 193.48. His knock surpassed West Indies batter Marlon Samuels’ unbeaten 85 against England in the 2016 T20 World Cup final and New Zealand star Kane Williamson’s 85 against Australia in the 2021 final.
Samson has scored 321 runs so far in five innings at an average of 80.25 and a strike rate of 199.37, with 27 fours and 24 sixes. At the time of writing, he is the second-highest run-scorer in the tournament. He has overtaken Kohli’s tally of 319 runs in the 2014 T20 World Cup to register the most runs by an Indian in a single edition of the tournament.
However, Pakistan batter Sahibzada Farhan had earlier surpassed Kohli’s overall record, finishing the tournament with 383 runs at an average of 76.60 and a strike rate of 160.25, including two centuries and two fifties.
Kohli had scored fifties in the 2014 T20 World Cup semifinal and final, making an unbeaten 72 against South Africa and 77 not out against Sri Lanka in the final. Similarly, Afridi scored 51 against South Africa and later an unbeaten 54 against Sri Lanka at Lord’s in the final.
Samson has also joined Sri Lankan legend Mahela Jayawardene, Babar Azam, Kohli, KL Rahul, Kusal Mendis, and Farhan on the list of batters with three successive scores of 50 or more in T20 World Cups, the joint-most by any player.
In another first for a T20 World Cup final, the top three batters in the lineup all scored half-centuries.
In the match, New Zealand won the toss and elected to field first. However, a return-to-form, record-breaking fifty from Abhishek Sharma, who scored 52 off 21 balls with six fours and three sixes, and his 98-run partnership with Samson made New Zealand regret the decision.
Later, Samson added a century partnership with Ishan Kishan, who scored 54 off 25 balls with four boundaries and four sixes, taking India past the 200-run mark in the 16th over.
After a brief slowdown, Shivam Dube scored an unbeaten 26 off eight balls, hitting three fours and two sixes, helping India reach 255/5, the highest total in T20 World Cup history.
James Neesham, who took 3/46, was the leading wicket-taker for New Zealand. (ANI)
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