Sports

India Vs West Indies 1st T20: Fans Compare Sanju Samson Run-Out To MS Dhoni’s Dismissal In 2019 World Cup

August 4, 2023

Team India failed chase down a 150-run target for just the fourth time in their T20I history of 200 matches. Hardik Pandya’s side lost the 1st T20 against West Indies at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad by 4 runs on Thursday.

India had the run-chase under control with skipper Hardik Pandya and wicketkeeper Sanju Samson in the middle and only 37 needed to win in 30 balls. But West Indies fought back remarkably well in the first match to deny India.

The 16th over of India’s chase turned the game around for West Indies, as both Hardik Pandya and Samson were dismissed within the space of 3 balls. Pandya was first bowled by West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder for 19 off 19 balls and then Samson was found just inches short of his crease by a direct hit from Kyle Mayers and was dismissed for 12.

Fans compared Samson’s dismissal to MS Dhoni’s run-out in the 2019 World Cup semifinal against New Zealand. It proved to be Dhoni’s final international match as he was run-out for 51 after a brilliant direct hit from Martin Guptill as Team India lose the match.

Skipper Pandya said after the match that Team India have a young team in the five-match T20I series and they will make mistakes. “This is a young team will make mistakes. We will grow together. Throughout the game, we were in control of the game which was the positive in this game. Good four games coming ahead,” Pandya said after the match

“In T20 cricket, if you lose wickets, it becomes difficult to chase down any total, that’s exactly what happened. A couple of hits can change the momentum towards you. When we lost a couple of wickets, that halted our chase. It (playing three spinners) was more to do with the conditions. We would like to give opportunities to the two wristies (Kuldeep and Chahal) to play together. Axar adds a very good component in his batting as well. We felt that was the right combination,” he added.

Samson now averages only 19.56 after 18 T20I matches in his career with just 1 fifty to his name so far. India will play the second T20I against West Indies on Sunday.