I prepared really well and things came off nicely – Sanju Samson

Sanju Samson played another sparkling knock, smashing 89 off just 42 balls as he set the tone perfectly for India’s grandstand finish. He hammered eight fours and seven sixes during his time at the crease, scoring at a rate of 211.90. He also won the Player of the Match award for another herculean knock up front as India sailed into the final.

At the post-match presentation, Samson opened up about his feelings after the knock and underlined the mindset he had before the game. He also shed some light on how batting first actually favored India on what was a belter of a track to bat on.

Samson said, “Feels really great. To be honest, I kind of knew that I had some form going from the last game, so I thought I needed to continue. I think it's not easy to find form in crucial games for your country, so I thought big game, I need to make the most out of how I'm batting. So I gave myself an extra time. I calculated my innings a bit. I prepared really well and I think things came off nicely.”

Talking about the tempo of his innings, Samson added, “Got a bit lucky to start off and then I just wanted to carry on. Knowing that playing in Wankhede, we know that no score is stoppable here, so I just wanted to get as much as possible, runs as possible. Even 250 looked like chaseable here and England played really well. All credit goes to how they batted and we really had a great semifinal.”

Explaining the conditions, Samson added, “As I told before, you need to assess the conditions. We have played a lot of cricket here in Wankhede, as I said before, chasing becomes a bit easier here. They won the toss, put us into bat, so we knew after the way we batted, the way myself and Ishaan batted, the partnership which we had for after Abhishek got out, I thought that 250 should be possible here. So I think that's what we were talking about in the dressing room as well.”