Team India began their West Indies tour with a thrilling win in the first ODI of the three-match series at Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad on Friday. In a high-scoring encounter, the contest went down to the wire, where the visitors managed to register the victory by three runs.
Wicket-keeper batter Sanju Samson, who was chosen ahead of Ishan Kishan with the gloves in the opening ODI, did an excellent job in the final over to help India seal the thriller.
Notably, Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj, who was given the role to defend 15 runs in the last over, was under pressure after conceding a boundary on the third delivery. Thereafter, Siraj dished out a wide. The ball was so wide down the leg side that it appeared the white cherry would cross Samson behind the stumps. But, the Kerala cricketer put in a full-length dive to save the ball going from a boundary. Siraj eventually ended up conceding 11 as India won the epic game by three runs.
Here is the video:
Woawwwww 😲 …..Flying Sanju 🦸♂️👐
Saves the match for India 🇮🇳 #IndvsWI #SanjuSamson pic.twitter.com/90boOz5FBG— Sourabh Pareek (@CricSourabh7) July 23, 2022
Following the thrilling win over West Indies, Indian spinner Yuzvendra Chahal said that the team had a belief that Siraj would be able to defend 15 runs in the final over. Yuzi mentioned that Samson’s effort to save the boundary lifted the confidence of the team.
“We had confidence and belief that Siraj could defend 15 runs in the final over because of the way he was bowling his yorkers. In his previous two overs as well, he had missed hardly one or two yorkers. There was confidence but also pressure because of the way they (West Indies) were batting. When Sanju Samson made that save on the wide ball, it raised our confidence,” said Chahal in a post-match press conference.
