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Sanju Samson hit a first-ball six off Jofra Archer, joining Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal in an elite list.
Sanju Samson taking on the short-ball. (Sportzpics Photo)
Sanju Samson, despite getting out for an underwhelming 16 in the fifth T20I against England, didn’t go back to the pavilion before joining former T20I skipper Rohit Sharma and fellow Rajasthan Royals opener Yashasvi Jaiswal in an elite record list for India. With his first-ball six against Jofra Archer, Samson became only the third Indian to hit a maximum on the opening ball of a T20I match after Rohit and Jaiswal.
Archer, who had troubled Samson throughout the series with the bouncers, tried him with the same tactic on the first ball of the match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. But the opener readily went back and across to pummel him over deep mid-wicket for a flat six. Rohit had achieved this when he hit English spinner Adil Rashid for a six at the Narendra Modi Stadium in 2021 while Jaiswal did it last year off Sikandar Raza in Harare.
Samson hit another six and a boundary but got out to Mark Wood, with the express pacer’s bouncer proving to be too good for him. This was the fifth time he got out to a bouncer, ending his series for a paltry 51 runs — the third-lowest aggregate for an Indian opener in a T20 series or tournament.
Sanjay Manjrekar defends Sanju Samson
Earlier, before the final T20I, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar had defended Samson, saying that an impactful player like him should be allowed a few failures.
“When you are looking at a T20I talent, batting talent, you have got to see when they are playing well what kind of impact they can make, what contribution they can make. And you see with Sanju Samson, when he plays well, he gets an incredible hundred and puts your team in a winning position,” Manjrekar said while speaking on ESPNCricinfo.
“So, such people are allowed failures and maybe a long patch of failures as well because that’s the nature of these as a T20 cricketer, where you can’t play yourself, where you have to keep taking those risks that they take. Hopefully, there’s that one innings that just propels him back into form,” he added.
