Everybody Wants Sanju To Do Well: Gavaskar

New Delhi: Iconic Sunil Gavaskar says Sanju Samson was such a “good guy” that everyone wanted him to do well and his clutch knock against the West Indies may have taken the pressure off everyone’s shoulders.

Samson broke the low-score streak with a match-winning knock of 97 on the big stage in the high-stakes T20 World Cup match against the West Indies in Kolkata on Sunday night.

“This knock of 97 takes a load off not only Sanju Samson’s shoulders but also from the shoulders of everyone who knows how good a player he is. He has had his ups and downs and we felt them because he is such a good guy. Everyone wants him to be successful,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports programme.

Samson hit a bad spell in the run-up to the World Cup, with a string of low points failing to reflect his true potential.

“All Indian cricket fans will be happy that this sincere cricketer gets the success he deserves.”

India will face England in the semi-finals in Mumbai on Thursday.

Gavaskar said the match-winning performance, capped by a century, would be the icing on the cake for Samson.

“To be Man of the Match in a must-win match is a dream come true. You could see the emotion on Sanju’s face after completing the winning streak. He was three runs behind a hundred and it would have been amazing if he had reached three figures.

“But maybe in another match there could be hundreds more on the way. It was not an easy target to pursue, but this group of players did not give up and they achieved the incredible.”

Explaining how India managed a tough chase of 196 runs against a tough side, Gavaskar said avoiding too many dot balls was the key.

“It is very useful to have a set batsman at one end. The other batsman can try to hit singles and give more strikes to the set batsman. This way you don’t get too many dot balls. In T20 cricket, the aim is to have as few dot balls as possible,” he said.

“I think the Indian team has realized this. If you look at the teams with the lowest dot-ball percentage, India are quite up there. I’m not saying they are the best, but they are there. That’s where half the battle is won.”

“If you score from 80 to 85 balls in 120 overs, you give yourself a real chance of chasing scores like 190 to 200 and that’s exactly what India did against the West Indies.”