Sanju Samson (Image credit: BCCI) MUMBAI: Harry Brook tried to laugh it off as he stood with his hands on his knees. Jofra Archer turned dejectedly as he walked to his mark and Sanju Samson breathed a sigh of relief as he put his guard up.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!It was a key moment of the match in the third over, Archer outplayed in the second when a right-arm pacer forced Samson to mistime a drive straight at Brook at mid-off. However, the England captain ended up spilling the beans. Samson, who was 15 off seven balls at that point, added another 74 off 35 after that in a breathtaking onslaught on the England bowlers.
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England had an opportunity to reduce India to 24/2 and tighten the match. Instead, they were left to mourn as the Kerala cricketer went on a rampage, scoring an entertaining 42-ball 89 built on the back of eight fours and seven sixes to help India to 253/7. Samson’s knock was the joint third-highest score in a T20 World Cup match, along with Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 89 against West Indies in the 2016 edition at the same venue.READ ALSO: I made a big mistake when I dropped Sanju Samson, says Harry BrookWith each Samson boundary, Brook became more and more worried. Brook would have felt like Herschelle Gibbs dropping Steve Waugh during the 1999 World Cup as Samson slashed, pulled and controlled everything thrown at him.Everyone was looking forward to the Archer vs Samson match, especially when the Englishman dominated the Indian opener during the T20I series earlier last year. Samson struggled with Archer’s pace and short runs, scoring only 25 runs from the 23 balls he faced and was dismissed three times.
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To make matters worse, an Archer racket broke Samson’s right index finger in the last T20I of this series at this very spot, which ruled him out for a month.On Thursday, Samson looked cautious against Archer, but unlike the 2025 T20I series where his confidence plummeted with each low score, he entered the semi-finals on the back of a winning 97 against West Indies. He picked up Archer’s third for a boundary over mid off and then slotted a misdirected short ball over deep fine leg for a six.In the third over, the 31-year-old would have had his heart in his mouth as he watched his drive sail straight to Brook, but once he saw him on the spoon, he quickly gathered his thoughts and two balls later took his foe for a six over the corner of the cow.Archer came back in the 13th over but Samson put two of the three balls he faced over the boundary. In total, Samson faced 14 balls from Archer and took 38 runs off him.
