Former Indian batter Subramaniam Badrinath showered praise on Sanju Samson after India’s four-wicket win against New Zealand at the Hagley Oval, Christchurch on Thursday. Badrinath also compared the Kerala batter with Tamil cinema superstar Rajinikanth.
New Zealand posted a par score of 225 runs on the board after Shreyas Iyer elected to field first. However, India was given a perfect start with Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson hitting the ground running.
Samson scored a blistering knock of 67 runs off 33 balls, including eight fours and four sixes. The Indian opener reached his 11th fifty off just 23 balls and added 93 runs off 35 balls with Abhishek Sharma to put India in a good position in the run-chase.
Badrinath wrote on his X handle, “Watching Sanju Samson go big is like watching Superstar Rajinikanth in a packed theatre! Every six, a roar. Absolute mass madness!”
Samson was awarded Player of the Match for his fine performance. The experienced batter said he likes batting with Abhishek Sharma and they just follow ‘watch the ball, hit the ball’ approach.
“We do have a lot of conversations happening in the middle, but nothing makes sense, actually. We just watch the ball and hit hard. It has been working very well for us, and I like batting with him at the top. The ball was swinging around a lot, I think in the second half, a bit too much, actually. But off the surface, it was coming on very nicely. So I think Abhi and I just felt like keeping the shape and having a very positive intent in the powerplay. Once we got off to a flying start, we felt the match could be finished in the first half as well,” said Samson on his partnership with Abhishek (via Cricbuzz).
The second T20I between India and New Zealand will be played at Hagley Oval, Christchurch, on Saturday.
