Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], March 2 (ANI): West Indies captain Shai Hope lauded India's Sanju Samson after his match-winning innings guided India to a five-wicket victory over West Indies in a Super 8s knockout clash of the T20 World Cup 2026 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on Sunday, sealing their place in the semifinals.

Sanju Samson scored an unbeaten 97 off 50 balls, helping India chase down a competitive 196-run target to guide Suryakumar Yadav's side to a five-wicket win in a do-or-die clash of the ongoing World Cup.

Both India and West Indies, tied on points in the Super 8s points table, needed to win the Kolkata fixture in order to join South Africa, New Zealand and England in the T20 WC semifinals. With the win, India set up their semis clash with England on March 5.

Speaking at the post-match press conference, West Indies captain Shai Hope praised Sanju Samson, calling him a quality and experienced player.

He acknowledged that while the Eden Gardens pitch made scoring easier, Samson's innings was outstanding and deserved full credit for guiding India to victory.

'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,' Hope said as quoted by the ICC website..

Hope said Sanju Samson batted intelligently and paced his innings perfectly, though he wished it hadn't come against West Indies.

'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.

Coming to the match, India won the toss and elected to field 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) put on an opening stand of 68 runs for first wicket, but WI slipped to 119/4 in 14.1 overs, despite a fiery cameo by Shimron Hetmyer (27 in 12 balls, with a four and two sixes).

It was the pair of Jason Holder (37* in 22 balls, with two fours and three sixes) and Powell (34* in 19 balls, with three fours and two sixes) who put on a fiery stand of 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 dropping a spell of 1/40 in four overs each.

In the run-chase, India was reduced to 41/2 within the powerplay. It was a 58-run stand between Samson and Suryakumar Yadav (18), which brought the chase back on track. Then Sanju went on to stitch 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 win. (ANI)