With India’s semi-final spot on the line, Sanju Samson rose to the occasion, producing a gem of an innings to take his team past the West Indies and into the final four of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026.
Scorecard
In a make-or-break contest against West Indies, the defending champions came up with a solid performance to cruise to a five-wicket win in Kolkata on Sunday. On a batter-friendly track at the Eden Gardens, West Indies batting depth was put to the test as they survived a mid-innings wobble to post 195/4.
Samson led the chase with an unbeaten 97, as India brought up 199/5 in 19.2 overs. It was the highest score by an Indian in a run-chase at the T20 World Cup.
India will next take on England in the semi-finals in Mumbai on Thursday.
Put into bat, West Indies were uncharacteristically watchful in the beginning and finished powerplay at 45/0.
West Indies stepped in a newly-minted opening partnership of Shai Hope and Roston Chase. It was Chase’s first T20I as an opener and after a sedate start, he got going with two sweetly-timed boundaries against Arshdeep Singh and then scooped Jasprit Bumrah for a four.
Varun Chakaravarthy gave India the breakthrough as he knocked back Shai Hope’s (32) stumps in the ninth over. But it was Jasprit Bumrah’s double strike, to dismiss set batters Shimron Hetmyer (27) and Roston Chase (40), that swung the momentum India’s way.
Hetmyer was starting to flex his muscle, and had hit two sixes and a four, but ended up nicking a ball angling away from him to the wicketkeeper. Two balls later, Bumrah had Chase lob the ball to cover to a leaping Suryakumar Yadav. Hardik Pandya set them further back as he had Sherfane Rutherford caught behind.
After West Indies slipped from 102/2 to 119/4, Jason Holder and Rovman Powell took the attack to India. The latter also became the first West Indian to hit 150 sixes in T20Is with a flick over the square leg boundary.
Powell and Holder put on 76 runs for the fifth wicket, off just 35 balls, to take West Indies to a challenging score. While Powell finished with 34 off 19 balls, with the help of three fours and two sixes, Holder struck two fours and three sixes for a 22-ball 37.
Chasing a sizeable total, India were quick off the blocks. Sanju Samson signalled his intent in the third over, as he hit a four and two sixes in four balls against Akeal Hosein, to score 17 runs in the over.
But Hosein struck in the same over with the wicket of Abhishek Sharma, who mistimed a pull and Shimron Hetmyer raced from deep square leg to complete the catch. Ishan Kishan also fell in similar fashion to Jason Holder. At the end of powerplay, India put up 53/2 on the board.
Brought back into the playing XI in the previous game, Samson is rejoicing his stint at the top. The right-hand batter brought up his first T20 World Cup half-century in style, punching a ball through point. He put on a 58-run stand with Suryakumar Yadav and 42-run stand with Tilak Varma to put India in charge.
Without taking too many risks, Samson picked his moments, and his spots to wrest the game away from his rivals. He finished with 97 not out, off just 50 balls in a special innings studded with 12 fours and four sixes. Fittingly, it was the 31-year-old who scored the winning runs, as he chipped the ball over mid-on and into the fence.
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