T20 World Cup 2026: Chetta Samson takes centre-stage at Wankhede

The crowd at the Wankhede Stadium was still pouring in when a young boy, perhaps around 10, walked towards the stands with his parents. Amid the hum of thousands of voices, their conversation in Malayalam stood out for a brief moment.

As they made their way up the stairs of the Vijay Merchant Pavilion, the boy tugged at his father’s arm and pointed towards the field.

“ Chetta avide! (Brother is there)”

The direction of his finger said it all. At one corner of the ground, Sanju Samson was going through his warm-up routine. By the time one could try and approach the family for a quick chat, they had already disappeared into the swelling crowd. A quick search over the next half an hour proved futile.

But the boy’s words lingered.

“ Chetta avide!”

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Like thousands inside the stadium, he had probably come hoping to see the India march into the final of the T20 World Cup. And more than anything else, he would have wanted his “C hetta” Samson to light up the evening. Even then, it would have been hard to imagine just how special that performance would turn out to be.

Because as the semifinal unfolded, it was Samson who seized the moment.

His blistering 42-ball 89 not only anchored India’s charge but also turned the game decisively. Early in the innings, Samson had survived a huge scare when Harry Brook spilled a straightforward chance at mid-on. On a different day, that moment might have changed the story entirely.

Instead, it became the turning point.

Making optimum use of the reprieve, Samson batted with a clarity, keeping with his match-winning unbeaten 97 in the crucial Super 8 fixture against West Indies from three nights ago. The surface looked flat, the outfield was lightning quick, and the square boundaries were invitingly short, but even in those conditions, the authority with which Samson struck the ball stood out.

His contest with Jofra Archer added an edge to the early overs. Archer tested him with pace and bounce, beating him on occasions and even bouncing back with a fuller delivery after being struck for boundaries. For a brief passage, it seemed England might claw its way back.

It had already made an early dent by removing Abhishek Sharma, and another wicket then could have tilted the momentum.

But Brook’s dropped catch shifted the energy of the evening.

Samson found his rhythm almost instantly after that moment. The boundaries began to flow, the timing improved with every passing over, and the pressure slowly but surely moved onto England.

By the end of the PowerPlay, India had raced to 67 for one, with Samson firmly in control. At Wankhede, once the ball pierces the infield, it rarely stops before the boundary rope. Samson made the most of those conditions, sending the ball racing across the turf and occasionally soaring over it. The fours and sixes came in a steady stream as he dismantled the England attack.

There was a sense in the stands that something special was unfolding. Yet, when Samson finally fell, just 11 runs short of what would have been a memorable century, a collective sigh swept across the press box. “ Yaar, he left a century right there,” a voice echoed.

It perfectly captured the mood of the evening. Because while the scoreboard read 89, the knock carried the weight of something much bigger.

From being left out of the playing XI earlier in the tournament to returning with a performance of such authority, this has undoubtedly been Samson’s T20 World Cup. And this semifinal innings will rank among the finest of his career.

Somewhere in the stands of the Vijay Merchant Pavilion, the young boy who had pointed towards the field earlier, might have had the widest smile. It was a night when his Chetta took the centrestage.

Published on Mar 05, 2026