Samson Dedicates Player of Match Award to 'Once-in-a-Generation' Bumrah

The Wankhede Stadium was a batting carnival on Thursday afternoon. England's batters swung freely. India's bowlers, for the most part, got hammered. But Jasprit Bumrah was different. While the pitch offered almost nothing to work with—a true paradise for hitters—he returned figures of 1 for 33 across four overs, and more importantly, he was the one who steadied India when it mattered most, in the death overs when the match hung in balance. India had posted 253 for seven, a total that felt enormous on a ground where boundaries came easy. England chased hard and finished at 246 for seven. Seven runs short. The difference, in the end, was Bumrah.

Sanju Samson had done his part. The wicketkeeper-batter had struck 89 runs off just 42 balls, laying the foundation for India's massive total with aggressive intent and clean hitting. It was his second consecutive fifty-plus score in the tournament—he had delivered in the must-win Super Eights match against the West Indies at Kolkata as well. When the match ended and the Player of the Match award came his way, Samson did something unexpected. He gave it away.

"All credit goes to Bumrah," Samson said in the post-match presentation, his voice steady and genuine. "I think the world class bowler, a true once in a generation player. I think that's what he delivered today. I think this award should go to him actually." He explained his reasoning plainly: without the way the bowlers—and Bumrah in particular—had executed in the death overs, he wouldn't be standing there at all. The batting performance, in his view, was only possible because the bowling had held firm when it needed to most.

When asked about his own innings, Samson was reflective. He had come into the match with form on his side, having played well in the previous game. He knew the Wankhede pitch well enough to understand that no total was truly safe there, so he had set out to bat as long as possible and accumulate runs. "I gave myself an extra time," he said, describing his approach. He had calculated his innings carefully, prepared thoroughly, and things had fallen into place. He got a bit lucky early on, he admitted, but once he found his rhythm, he simply kept going hard. That was the only way to bat in a T20 match, he explained—once you have a start and you're batting first, there's no other strategy. You have to keep swinging.

The fact that he hadn't reached a century didn't trouble him at all. "I think not at all," he said when the question came up. In T20 cricket, unlike Test or ODI formats, you can't afford to have ups and downs in your approach. Once you're in, you're committed to aggression. Whether you end up with 89 or 100 or 120 depends on the process, not the target. "I'm very happy to get whatever I'm getting and very happy to contribute on the winning side for my country," he concluded.

England had played well too, Samson acknowledged. They had batted with intent and come close. But India's bowling, particularly in those crucial final overs, had been the difference. Now India would move forward to the final, scheduled for Sunday in Ahmedabad, where they would face New Zealand. The momentum was there—a semifinal victory on home soil, a batting unit that could post massive totals, and a bowling attack that could hold its nerve when the pressure was highest.