West Indies captain Shai Hope praised Team India’s star batter Sanju Samson after his match-winning innings guided India to a five-wicket win over West Indies in a Super 8s knockout match of the T20 World Cup 2026 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on Sunday. With this, they sealed their place in the semifinals.
However, Sanju Samson scored an unbeaten 97 off 50 balls, helping his side chase down a huge 196-run target to guide India to a five-wicket win in a do-or-die match of the ongoing World Cup. Both India and West Indies, tied on points in the Super 8s points table, were required to win the match in order to join South Africa, New Zealand and England in the T20 WC semifinals. With this win, India set up their semi-final match with England on March 5 as well.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, West Indies captain Shai Hope praised Sanju Samson, saying, “He played really well, he’s a good player, cause it’s also a good surface. Especially in the night time when you’re chasing on a pitch like this in the Eden Gardens, its usually easier to score freely. But taking nothing away from him, like I said he’s a quality player, he’s been playing really well for so many years now and it’s one of those things – the batter just gets the better of our bowlers. It’s part of the game as well, you must give credit for the innings that he played today.”
Shai Hope also said that Sanju Samson batted well and paced his innings perfectly, though he wished it hadn’t come against them as well.
“He shot the ball very nicely from the beginning all the way through to the end of the innings and he’s paced it really nicely. He was very smart and calculated with the way he went about his strokes. But yeah, you must give him an A plus with the way he played today. But we wish he didn’t have that innings today,” Hope added further.
Team India won the toss and elected to bowl first. Roston Chase (40 in 25 balls, with five fours and a six) and skipper Shai Hope (32 in 33 balls, with three fours and a six) posted an opening stand of 68 runs for first wicket, but WI slipped to 119/4 in 14.1 overs, despite Shimron Hetmyer’s quickfire knock (27 in 12 balls, with a four and two sixes).
Then Jason Holder (37* in 22 balls, with two fours and three sixes) and Powell (34* in 19 balls, with three fours and two sixes) added 76 runs in 35 balls, taking WI to 195/4 in 20 overs. Jasprit Bumrah (2/36 in four overs) was India’s leading bowler, with Varun Chakaravarthy and Hardik Pandya bowling 1/40 in four overs each as well.
In the run-chase, India were reduced to 41/2 within the powerplay. It was a 58-run stand between Sanju Samson and Suryakumar Yadav (18), which helped India get on track. Then Sanju Samson stitched partnerships with Tilak Varma (27 in 15 balls, with four boundaries and a six), Hardik Pandya (17) and Shivam Dube (8*), taking India to a five-wicket victory as well.
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