New Delhi

Legendary former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said that wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson is such a “nice guy” that everyone in the cricketing fraternity wants to see him succeed, adding that his match-winning knock against the West Indies would have eased pressure not just off his own shoulders but off many others as well.

Samson ended his run of low scores with a crucial 97 not out in a high-pressure T20 World Cup encounter against the West Indies in Kolkata on Sunday night, guiding India to a memorable victory.

“This knock of 97 not out takes the weight off not just Sanju Samson’s shoulders, but off everyone who knows what a fine player he has been. He has had ups and downs, and we have felt them too because he is such a nice guy. Everybody wants him to do well,” Gavaskar said on a Star Sports show.

The former opener noted that Samson had endured a lean patch in the lead-up to the World Cup, with a series of low scores that did not truly reflect his ability.

“All Indian cricket fans will be happy that this sincere cricketer has got the success he deserves,” Gavaskar added.

India are now set to face England in the semi-finals in Mumbai on Thursday.

Gavaskar said a match-winning performance capped with a century would have been the perfect reward for Samson but felt the innings would boost the batter’s confidence going forward.

“To be the Man of the Match in a must-win game is a dream come true. You could see the emotions on Sanju’s face after he hit the winning runs. He was three runs short of a hundred and it would have been fantastic had he reached the three-figure mark,” Gavaskar said.

“But maybe another hundred is on the way in some other match. It was not an easy target to chase down, but this set of players didn’t give up and they pulled off the unbelievable,” he added.

Explaining how India successfully chased down a challenging 196-run target, Gavaskar said minimising dot balls was a key factor.

“Having a set batter at one end is very beneficial. The other batter can look to knock singles and give more strike to the set batter. That way, there are not too many dot balls. In T20 cricket, the idea is to have as few dot balls as possible,” he said.

Gavaskar noted that India have shown significant improvement in this aspect. “If you look at the teams with the lowest percentage of dot balls, India are pretty high up there. I am not saying they are the best, but they are up there. That is where half the battle is won,” he explained.

READ MORE: Darakhshan Andrabi - first woman to head Waqf Board proved her mettle

“Out of 120 deliveries, if you score runs off 80 to 85 balls, you give yourself a real chance to chase scores like 190 to 200—and India did exactly that against the West Indies,” Gavaskar added.