Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], March 9 : Basking in India's ICC T20 World Cup victory, batter Sanju Samson took to Instagram to express gratitude to his wife, Charulatha, for her unwavering support.
"Right from the day i met you,,till this day of my life...!! Thank you so very much for being by my side,loving me for who I am and being absolutely true and honest to me no matter what i was to the outside world..Seeing my best side,seeing my worst side,,you have seen it all and still stood strong by me..!! Thank you for understanding how big cricket is in my life and making it the same for you..
"And you have wished and dreamed with the same passion and intensity as i did for this moment..Thank you so very much my dear Pondattiiiiii," he added.
Sanju also shared pictures with Charulatha. The first one appears to be from their dating days, while in the other, the two are seen holding the trophy after the final match.
Samson scripted a comeback for ages, as he overcame poor form and exclusion from the playing eleven to shine when everything was at stake.
Having scored just 46 runs in five innings against NZ before this tournament, Samson lost his place in the team to Ishan Kishan.
When a leftie-dominant top-order was struggling against off-spin, destiny handed Sanju a second chance and he grabbed it with every inch of life he had in his hands. Right from the virtual quarterfinal against West Indies to the title clash against New Zealand, Samson mesmerised one and all with his tidy strokeplay, timing and broke records to join legends like Virat Kohli, Shahid Afridi, etc. in the history books of the T20 World Cup.Samson made 321 runs so far in five innings at an average of 80.25 and a strike rate of 199.37, with 27 fours and 24 sixes, and ended as the third-highest run-getter in the tournament. He also surpassed Virat Kohli's total of 319 runs in the 2014 T20WC edition to have the most runs by an Indian during a single T20WC edition.
However, Pakistan batter Sahibzada Farhan overtook Virat's record earlier, ending the tournament as the leading run-getter with 383 runs at an average of 76.60 and a strike rate of 160.25, with two centuries and two fifties.
Speaking during the post-match presentation, Samson spoke about how he felt "out of words and emotions".
The batter said that when he was not a part of the T20 World Cup playing eleven back in 2024, he would visualise and keep on working on things he wanted to do.
"After the NZ series, I was broken; my dreams were completely shattered. And I was thinking what I can do. But God had different plans. And I was rewarded for being brave enough to dream. A lot of former players have reached out to me and tried to help me out. For the last couple of months, I have been in constant contact with Sachin sir. I reached out to him and had big, big conversations with him. Getting guidance from someone like him, what more can you ask for? I am very grateful for everyone who supported me. This itself is very big for me, I want to enjoy it right now, and then after a few days, I will figure out what more to do," he added.
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