India vs West Indies, 52nd Match, Super 8 Group 1 (X1 v X3), ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 - Commentary

A Sanju Samson special has seen India book their spot in the semis. It's at the Wankhede where they will face England. That should be a great game especially if dew doesn't come in. The other semis is between New Zealand and South Africa here at Eden Gardens. Both should be crackers. The tournament now takes a break for two days. We will be back on 4th March for the 1st semi-final. We have had a great time in bringing this game to you. Hope you have enjoyed it as much as we did bringing it to you. Time to escape from Cricbuzz Towers. On behalf of everyone, signing off from here. Good night and sleep well.

They say life rewards the most persistent. And that definitely was the case with Sanju Samson. So much has gone on around him. Was his side's first-choice opener in this format, then lost form, then made low scores. India decided to get Gill into the side. When Gill came in, he was booted down the order, took that in his stride, went back to open and a string of low scores saw him getting dropped after a long rope. Come the T20 World Cup time, Samson was not even a starter. It needed India to lose badly to South Africa in Ahmedabad for them to bring him back. Imagine what Samson must have gone through. Often you could see him alone and keeping to himself in the dugout with a little smile on his face. Most importantly he never let his spirits drop. When the chance came, he has made it count. His talent was never in question, but his temperament was. He put that all to bed tonight with a magnificent knock in a high-pressure game. Just hanging in there in life sometimes is just enough. Well done Samson! And he would hope this is just the start to realising his large potential.

Suryakumar Yadav | India captain: "Obviously, it's a great feeling, and the way we played, I think, as everyone said, it was a do-or-die, like a quarter-final game, and the way boys showed character, I think it was a great thing. (on Sanju Samson) See, I always say, good things happen to good people who wait, who have a lot of patience. I said it just now as well when I met him. But then it's all his hard work, what he's been doing behind the doors when he was not playing, and he's got the fruit of it at the perfect stage. And the way he batted, took the side completely to the victory. (happy with how the bowlers went?) I feel everyone bowled according to the plans. We knew 200 is always a good score to chase here at Eden with the dew and the way wicket becomes in the second innings, the ball comes onto the bat nicely. And the way batters responded later on with those small, small partnerships, I think that was the key to take the game deep. (thoughts on the semi-final clash) Very happy to be there at that spot. The way we played, I think from first game, I think we deserved that spot going there to the semi-final. That too in Mumbai, but we won't think about that right now. Rest back, relax, take a flight tomorrow. When we reach Mumbai, we start thinking about it. (how do you manage the expectation of a Billion people) See expectations will always be there, but at the same time you should know what you want to do on the field as a team. And I told the same thing to the boys. Yes, there will be pressure, there will be expectations of a lot of people coming to the ground, watching it back home. But at the same time, when a game like this comes, you have to be more courageous, you have to bring your A-game, put the best foot forward, be positive, take a positive option wherever and whenever under pressure. And I think we were quite good in taking that. (pressure is a privilege?) Absolutely. I mean, where there's no pressure, there's no fun. And we can't run away from the fact that there's no pressure. There is pressure, we are nervous there. There are butterflies in the stomach. But that too, we are playing in India, home team playing at home venues. There will be pressure, but then it's how you understand that, how you take it, that's more important."

Shai Hope | West Indies captain: "Well maybe a few short, especially here on a chasing ground such as this. We just felt as though maybe in the position that we were in, probably could have gone a bit more in the back-end there, but probably didn't start as well as we wanted to with the bat. But again, if you get to 190, the guys put in a good effort there with the ball in the back-end to fight as hard as we could have. Sanju played a really good innings as well, so you've got to give him credit. But yeah, I just felt as though 190 could always work with a score like that, but if you're being critical, you could probably get a bit more runs on the board. (on the double-wicket in the 12th over from Bumrah) Yeah, again, he's one of their main strike bowlers and whenever he's got the ball in his hand, something is going to happen. Yeah, it was really good on their part to come and break that partnership there, especially in that situation when Hetty was going really well in the tournament. If he got on, probably gone on to get a big score again today. But yeah, he's one of their main bowlers. You can see when he's called upon, he's always going to raise his hand for India. But yeah, it's just one of those crucial times in the game, but like I said before, we got to 190, I would give ourselves a chance. (on his bowling group in this tournament) I thought we were good. The way how we bowled, especially throughout the entire tournament, how we adjusted and adapted to most of the conditions pretty nicely. We played a lot of our games in Mumbai and Kolkata. But we must give the guys credit, especially in the powerplay. We took a lot of wickets, especially in the preliminary stage. Fordie was excellent with the new ball. Aki got some wickets as well at the top. And the spinners did a great job in the middle. Motie was really good again once he came back into the team. And I just thought all-round the bowlers were on song this time around. But it just doesn't get over the line today, we can't continue in the tournament. (how do you view your campaign ending at this stage?) You never want to end at this stage. One more game, we would be in the semis, and then, you know, if things go well, then you're in the final for the big one. So, I must give the guys credit for the effort that they put in, but we always wanna go all the way. When you come into a tournament to play, the aim is to win. You know, we've got high standards set for ourselves, and there's no other question for us. We got to make sure we're playing our best cricket on the day, and we also know that the opposition are also coming at us. So it's not a case where you could just rock up and take a win. So you've got to play good cricket, consistent cricket, and take those crucial moments in the game and capitalise on them. Again, today, we didn't do enough to cross the line, and India were the ones to qualify to the semis."

Sanju Samson | Player of the Match: "It means the whole world actually to me. I think right from the day I started playing, started dreaming to play for the country, I think this is the day I was waiting for. And very grateful, very thankful. And I’ve always had a very special journey with lots of ups and downs, but I’ve kept on doubting myself, kept on thinking, what if, what if, can I make it? can I make it? But I kept on believing and thanks to the Lord Almighty for actually blessing me today. So I’m very happy. (on role clarity with his batting) Yeah, I think that’s why I have been playing this format for a very long time. I think playing IPL around 10 to 12 years and playing for the country from last 10 years, I have not been playing, but looking from the dugout, learning from the greats like Virat Kohli, from Rohit Sharma, like all the greats. I think it’s very important to observe and learn and see what they were doing. I think that really helped me to, I think with my experience, I have only played maybe 50, 60 games, but I’ve seen around 100 games and I’ve seen how the greatest people have finished the games and how do they change their game according to the game. So I think last game we were batting first, so it was all about setting a very high score. So that’s how I wanted to go big right from ball one. But this game was completely different. I think as soon as I wanted to go a bit higher, we were losing wickets. So I think I wanted to build a partnership, wanted to keep on focusing on my process. And I never felt that I will do something special like this, but I was just focusing on my role and just keeping one ball at a time and very grateful. I think this is one of the greatest days of my life. (on the crowd support here) Yeah, definitely they do bring lot of energy and they do bring lot of support. But I think on the other end, there is always a question, what if not? (smiles loudly) So definitely that keeps on playing in your mind. But when that thought kept on coming, I just brought myself into the present moment and just looked at the ball and trusted myself to react according to the ball in merit. So I think that worked out pretty well today."

- Sanju Samson has opened the batting times in 29 run-chases in T20Is and IPL – this is the first instance of him remaining unbeaten till the end of the innings.

India batters vs WI pacers by length
Full (under 6m): 3/83 (45) | RR 11.06
Good (6-8m): 0/29 (24) | RR 7.25
Short (8+m): 1/17(11) | RR 9.28

Most T20I wins vs an opposition at a venue without a defeat
6 Pak vs WI in Karachi
6 Ind vs Ire in Malahide
5 Aus vs NZ in Auckland
5 NZ vs Zim in Harare
5 Pak vs Ban in Lahore
5 Pak vs Zim in Rawalpindi
5 Ind vs WI in Kolkata *

Highest individual scores for India in T20 World Cups
101 Suresh Raina vs SA Gros Islet 2010
97*Sanju Samson vs WI Eden Gardens 2026
92 Rohit Sharma vs Aus Gros Islet 2024
89*Virat Kohli vs WI Wankhede 2016
84*Suryakumar Yadav vs USA Wankhede 2026

Highest successful chases in T20 World Cups
230 Eng vs SA Wankhede 2016
206 SA vs WI Wanderers 2007
196 Ind vs WI Eden Gardens 2026 *
195 USA vs Can Dallas 2024
193 WI vs Ind Wankhede 2016

Previous highest for India: 173 vs South Africa in Mirpur in 2014

Most semifinal appearances in T20 World Cups
6 Pakistan (2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2021, 2022)
6 India (2007, 2014, 2016, 2022, 2024, 2026)
6 England (2010, 2016, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2026)

Live visuals show that Samson entering the dressing room. First he was met by Washi. Then he took his bat and kissed it. Varun came to hug Samson. Samson was then hugged by Kuldeep and Rinku before SKY came. Samson gave him a big right hand and then hugged him. Coming to the chase - it was always going to be pressure despite West Indies being at least 20-25 short of what could've been a defendable total. But they hung in there with wickets. But that man - Samson played a defining knock. Taking risks when it was needed. Keeping the good balls out and turning the strike over when it was not there to put it away to the fence. SKY, Tilak and Hardik gave him nice little cameos but it was Samson whose knock was the most important of the night. West Indies dropped two catches, whether that would've affected the final outcome is debatable. The dew made it a tad easier for India but nothing should take away the knock Samson played. And the relief on his face at the end of it all shows how much he has gone through mentally. Stay tuned for the post-match stuff....

22:49 Local Time, 17:19 GMT, 22:49 IST: Look at Sanju Samson. He is all smiles. And so relieved too. SKY and the others come to hug him. The post-match handshakes follow. Samson has gone through a lot in recent times. Got hundreds in this format away against South Africa, lost form, was dropped. Waited to see if he could get a chance to play in the T20 World Cup, got it after India were mauled by South Africa. And look what he has done in a virtual quarter-final in a chase of 195. Has played one of his best knocks in this format on the big night in such a pressure situation. The celebrations at the end show how much this means to him. Played so calmly and so responsibly and never looked flustered. He didn't get to face the first 10 balls of the innings as Abhishek hogged the strike but nothing could deter the zen-like calmness of Samson tonight. He was in the zone and he has finally done justice on the grandest stage in a big game with billions watching.

All the fielders in.

7 off 6. Who will bowl the final over? An extra fielder inside the ring for an over-rate penalty. Gaffaney signals it. Hope has a word with his colleagues. Samson tapping near his chest with his right glove. That's his usual routine.