{"id":450216,"date":"2026-02-28T11:51:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T11:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/450216\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T11:51:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T11:51:19","slug":"sanju-samson-made-orange-juice-of-zimbabwes-bowling-srikkanth-thrilled-by-ind-openers-intent-but-rues-missed-fifty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/450216\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Sanju Samson made orange juice of Zimbabwe’s bowling\u2019: Srikkanth thrilled by IND opener\u2019s intent, but rues missed fifty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sanju Samson<\/a> made his way back into India\u2019s playing XI and wasted little time in leaving a mark at the top of the order. The wicketkeeper-batter got going in style, launching a six off just the second delivery he faced to signal his intent. He raced to 24 from 15 balls, taking on the Zimbabwe <\/a>bowlers and putting them under early pressure. Although he could not convert the brisk start into a bigger score, his aggressive approach, which included two sixes and a boundary, ensured India seized momentum in the powerplay. The early surge laid the foundation for the batting unit to maintain that tempo and pile up an imposing 256\/4.<\/p>\n

\"SanjuSanju Samson played a quickfire 24-run knock against Zimbabwe. (PTI)<\/p>\n

Reacting in his trademark animated style, former India opener Krishnamachari Srikkanth<\/a> summed up the one-sided contest as a batting carnival for India. He took a cheeky dig at Zimbabwe\u2019s decision to bowl first and reserved special praise for Samson\u2019s early assault at the top.<\/p>\n

“It was a feast for India. Sharma and Varma scored, Hardik scored, everyone scored. It was a good batting wicket. Zimbabwe chose to bowl first, saying there would be juice on the wicket. Sanju Samson made orange juice of their bowling in two overs,” he said on ‘Cheeky Cheeka’.<\/p>\n

Also Read – Gautam Gambhir, Suryakumar Yadav told Abhishek Sharma that he wouldn\u2019t be dropped even if he scored \u2018another zero\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

After the manner in which Samson began, many anticipated a sizeable knock, but he once again perished trying to take on a slower short ball, holing out to deep midwicket just as he looked set to build something substantial.<\/p>\n

\u201cSanju should have scored a hundred\u201d<\/p>\n

Continuing his candid assessment, Srikkanth felt Samson had the perfect platform to convert his start into a three-figure score and did not hold back in expressing his surprise. While he expected at least a half-century from the wicketkeeper-batter, he also pointed out that Samson\u2019s brisk start played a key role in easing the pressure on Abhishek Sharma at the other end.<\/p>\n

“Sanju should have scored a hundred on this wicket. I was sure he would make a fifty. God is with you Sanju, what are you doing? Maybe he is reserving for the big match. But the start he gave was a good thing for Abhishek Sharma, as he could play his normal game. He did not have to go for the shots,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sanju Samson made his way back into India\u2019s playing XI and wasted little time in leaving a mark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163046,1721,9313,163045,163047,6975,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-450216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-aggressive-approach","tag-cricket","tag-india-playing-xi","tag-indias-playing-xi","tag-krishnamachari-srikkanth","tag-sanju-samson","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}