The second T20I between India and Ireland saw the former emerge victorious. However, there were many positives from both sides. One of the biggest for India was Deepak Hooda, who came up with a sensational century. He wreaked havoc with the bat and went on to become only the fourth Indian to notch a century in T20 internationals.
Sanju Samson also played a fine knock but his knock was, perhaps, overshadowed to some extent by Hooda’s century. The Rajasthan captain, made a great comeback of his own, hitting a quickfire 77 off of 42 at a strike rate of 183.
The batter was included in the national team after a long time. Samson grabbed the opportunity with both hands and made a record second-wicket partnership for India with Hooda.
The 27-year-old was beaming with pride in the post-match interview.
He said, “It was a good game. In the partnership we had, in that type of condition, there was some movement off the wicket and the bowlers were bowling in the right areas. I think Hooda made it very easy for me. He started hitting from the word go. We communicated really well, I was happy to just give the strike to him when he was hitting like that.”
Ex-India batter, Ajay Jadeja quizzed Samson if he was disappointed to miss a century of his own to which the right-hander replied,
“When I started going, he also did the same. I’m very happy for Hooda, and someday, soon, I would like to get to that kind of score (century). I’m very happy with the way I also batted.”
Jadeja seemed adamant about Samson’s great batting and insisted that he should have gotten a century too. The interviewer continued,
“Glad to hear that, but I’m sad here because I thought you should’ve gotten one too. And I hope you also start feeling that, because all of us are your big fans here, especially Swanny (Graeme Swann) and me. We would like to see you get those bigger totals when you get in there. Sorry, I’m being a little too harsh because I’m a big fan of your batting.”
