Once Sanju Samson is striking like that, it's pretty hard to stop: Aiden Markram

Sanju Samson smashed a scintillating century in Durban as India posted 202 runs on board in the first innings. The visitors were asked to bat first and they didn’t sacrifice on intent despite playing on foreign soil. Captain Suryakumar Yadav previously stated that he wants the players to play an aggressive brand of cricket in the shortest format and the players have lived up to the expectations so far.

Opener Abhishek Sharma once again had a difficult outing, as he departed for seven runs. After his dismissal, Samson took care of the business and built a 66-run partnership with the captain. Suryakumar didn’t look very comfortable in the middle as well, scoring only 21 runs off 17 deliveries. That shows that the Kerala-based stumper-batter was in charge in the middle and eventually helped the team post a great total on board.

South Africa captain Aiden Markram believes that they lost the game to Samson. He stated that the Proteas wanted a good start with the ball but the way the keeper-batter played, made it difficult for the hosts and they didn’t know how to stop him.

Also Read: ‘Shows the character of the man’ - Suryakumar Yadav lauds Sanju Samson after consecutive T20I centuries

“We wanted to get off to a better start and that is where we lost the game. Sanju played incredibly well, put our bowlers under pressure, plans to negate him and better plans will help us going forward. Once he is striking like that, it's pretty hard to stop and you take your hat off to him,” Markram said in the post-match presentation.

Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t: Samson

Sanju Samson became the first Indian cricketer to hit consecutive tons in international cricket. Courtesy of his performance, the Men in Blue secured a 61-run win and he was also adjudged Player of the Match. During the presentation ceremony, Samson talked about the intent and highlighted the risk of sometimes things not going in his favour.

“The intent, we have been talking about being aggressive and keeping the team ahead of yourselves. Once you play three-four balls you are looking for the boundary, I'm not thinking much, sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't, happy it worked out well today,” the 29-year-old said.