Yuzvendra Chahal Hailed Sanju Samson For His Great Boundary Save: India escaped a late onslaught from Romario Shepherd to clinch a 3-run victory in the first ODI against West Indies at the Queen’s Park Oval.
Shepherd was on a rampage smashing at a strike rate close to 160 as he took down the Indian bowlers in the death overs in his side’s pursuit of 309. He brought down the final over equation to 15 runs required off 6 balls, and further chiselled it down to 8 runs off the last 2 balls when Mohammed Siraj bowled a leg-side wide as he followed Shepherd moving on the leg-side but the pacer overdid his delivery.
The ball missed Shepherd by a distance and was likely to race away for four but for wicket-keeper Sanju Samson, who had shrewdly anticipated the line of the delivery early on and moved to his left quickly before putting a full-length dive with his left hand outstretched. Fortunately, Samson managed to get his hand to the ball and stop it from going to a certain boundary.
Here you are!
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This boundary save from Samson meant West Indies needed 7 runs off the last 2 balls instead of 3 had Samson not saved this boundary. Fortunately for India, Siraj then kept his calm and nailed his yorkers and conceded only three runs in the last two balls to give India a close win.
India leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal was effusive in praise for Samson, saying that the wicket-keeper’s great, determined effort boosted the morale of other players as well. Chahal also praised Mohammed Siraj, adding that the team had full faith in the seamer.
“We had full faith in Siraj and that we can defend five runs in the last over as he was bowling his yorkers very well… He missed hardly one or two yorkers earlier,” Chahal said in the post-match presser.
“But yes, a little bit of pressure is always there, given the way they were batting. Sanju (Samson) stopped a certain boundary off a wide, and that raised our confidence.”
Chahal himself bowled well – returning with figures of 2/58 in his 10 overs, including big wickets of half-centurion Brandon King and the destructive Rovman Powell. Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur, both, also took two wickets each but Axar Patel and Prasidh Krishna were on the expensive side.
Many feel that it was the inexperience of the Indian bowling attack that allowed the West Indies to reach this close in their chase. Not Chahal, though, who disagreed saying that all the bowlers have plenty of experience in both domestic and IPL cricket.
“There was not much pressure, because if you look at the team overall, almost everyone has played a lot of first-class matches, they have gained so much experience from the IPL, so you can’t say the bowling line-up was inexperienced,” the leg-spinner concluded.
The second ODI between the two teams is slated for Sunday at the same venue, Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain.
