There is often a complaint that Sanju Samson has not got enough chances on the international stage. The Kerala captain has not been given a long rope like a few others and is not a regular in the squad. After getting ignored from the T20I series against Australia at home, Samson got a chance in ODIs when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the ODI squad for the South Africa tour on December 30. After the selection, Samson got to bat in a low-scoring encounter where he remained unbeaten for 35 in the successful run chase. A couple of days later, he almost pulled off a win with a century after Kerala lost four wickets early on in the run chase.
Chasing a target of 256 against Railways at Kini Sports Arena Ground, Bengaluru, Samson walked out to bat in the ninth over after three wickets fell for just 26 runs. Himanshu Sangwan struck twice whereas Rahul Sharma took one wicket. The situation got worse when opener Krishna Prasad got bowled by Karn Sharma. Kerala were 59/4 in the 18th over.
Samson and Shreyas Gopal stabilised the run chase. But the required run rate kept climbing up as Kerala got off to a slow start. After rebuilding the innings, Samson and Gopal accelerated. The partnership was broken in the 45th over by Raj Choudhary. Gopal scored 53 runs from 63 balls including five fours.
After the fifth wicket, Kerala needed 59 runs from 34 balls. But Samson did not get support from the other end. Rahul got the wickets of Abdul Basith and Akhil Scaria. They got out for ducks and faced a total of eight dot balls. Meanwhile, Samson carried on after getting to his century but it was not enough. On the penultimate delivery, he became Rahul's fourth victim of the day. He scored 128 runs from 139 balls featuring eight fours and six sixes. Kerala managed to post 237/8 on the board and lost the match by 18 runs.
Earlier, Samson won the toss and opted to field first. Pratham Singh’s half-century and Sahab Yuvraj's unbeaten 121 helped Railways post 255/5.
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