Sanju Samson was out similar fashion: The India vs Zimbabwe match is ongoing as the two teams clash against each other in a must-win game on Thursday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. Both teams came to this match after losing their first Super 8 games. The co-hosts were asked to bat first after Sikandar Raza won the toss on a good batting wicket.
The India National Cricket Team made two changes since their last loss against South Africa last Sunday. Sanju Samson and Axar Patel were brought back in place of Rinku Singh and Washington Sundar. Sanju got his second match of the competition, and he gave the exact start that India needed to get going in this match.
Sanju Samson failed to convery his start
Sanju Samson, however, could not convert his start of 24 runs off 15 deliveries into a big score. He was dismissed in the 3.4 over, getting caught at deep mid-wicket, with Blessing Muzarabani picking up the wicket of the explosive opener. However, he gave India a good start with 48 runs partnership for the first wicket.
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However, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar made a critical assessment of Sanju Samson’s dismissal, as the former found a similar kind of pattern in his mode of dismissal. Teams have targeted that area to cramp Sanju Samson on the leg side as he has been dismissed multiple times playing a shot on the leg side while pulling or hooking fast bowlers.
He will be disappointed, because he’s got out so many times- Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar said while he was commentating on StarSports, “He will be disappointed, because he’s got out so many times in that region. Everybody knows bowl short, have a deep square leg. And again, it is the height of Muzarabani, which has allowed the ball to bounce a little bit more.”
“That’s why not quite off the middle of the bat. And so he got off to avery good start, 24 off 15. But he’s holed out in the deep once again. And India have lost their first wicket at 48.”
Indian batters were on song against Zimbabwe
Coming to the game, India were off to a flyer, as they scored 80 runs in the powerplay with the loss of one wicket. Abhishek Sharma might just found his rhythm back, scoring a 55 off 30 as the Southpaw took his time and smashed four sixes and the same number of boundaries in his blistering knock. Ishan Kishan once again was off to a flyer as he played a knock of 38 off 24 deliveries.
Suryakumar Yadav also played a crucial knock of 33 off 14 balls. Later on, Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma were absolutely lethal as they scored 55 in the last three overs. Hardik scored 50 off 23 balls, hitting two fours and four sixes, and Tilak Varma scored 44 off 26 balls, smashing three fours and four sixes.
This led India to post a massive total of 256/4 in their 20 overs. This is the highest score of the 2026 T20 World Cup and second highest score in the T20 World Cups.
Also Read: India post second highest total in T20 World Cup history