New Delhi, March 2 The iconic Sunil Gavaskar says that Sanju Samson is such a "nice guy" that everyone wants him to succeed, and his match-winning knock against the West Indies must have taken the pressure off everyone.
Samson broke his streak of low scores with a match-winning 97-run innings at the big stage in a high-stakes T20 World Cup game against the West Indies in Kolkata on Sunday night.
"This 97-run innings takes the pressure off not just Sanju Samson, but also everyone who knows what a fine player he is. He has had his ups and downs, and we have felt them too because he is such a nice guy. Everybody wants him to do well," Gavaskar said on a Star Sports show.
Samson had been struggling with low scores in the lead-up to the World Cup, with a string of poor performances failing to reflect his true potential.
"All Indian cricket fans will be happy that this sincere cricketer has achieved the success he deserves."
India will now face England in the semi-finals in Mumbai on Thursday.
Gavaskar said that a match-winning performance, capped with a century, would be the icing on the cake for Samson.
"To be the Man of the Match in a must-win game is a dream come true. You could see the emotions on Sanju's face after he hit the winning runs. He was just three runs short of a hundred, and it would have been fantastic had he reached the three-figure mark.
"But maybe another hundred is on the way in some other match. It was not an easy target to chase down, but this group of players didn't give up and they pulled off the unbelievable."
Breaking down how India managed a tough 196-run chase against a formidable side, Gavaskar said that avoiding too many dot balls was the key.
"Having a set batter at one end is very beneficial. The other batter can look to knock singles and give more strike to the set batter. That way, there are not too many dot balls. In T20 cricket, the idea is to have as few dot balls as possible," he said.
"I think the Indian team has realized that. If you look at the teams with the lowest percentage of dot balls, India are pretty high up there. I am not saying they are the best, but they are up there. That is where half the battle is won.
"Out of 120 deliveries, if you score runs off 80 to 85 balls, you give yourself a real chance to chase scores like 190 to 200, and India did exactly that against the West Indies."
