His last first-class hundred came nearly five years ago — 116 vs Bengal in December 2019
Sanju Samson, on September 20 (Friday), scored a century in red-ball cricket after 1740 days. Playing for India D, the wicketkeeper-batter from Kerala registered his 11th first-class ton on day two of the third round of the Duleep Trophy.
Samson got to the landmark off just 94 deliveries – the fastest anyone has got to a century in this year’s Duleep Trophy. In fact, this is the first century that has been scored at a strike rate of more than 100.
Samson eventually got out for 106 off 101, studded with 12 fours and three maximums.
His last first-class hundred came nearly five years ago — 116 vs Bengal in December 2019. Since then, he had played only nine red-ball games before this encounter. This is also Samson’s first Duleep Trophy. In the second round, he registered scores of 5 and 40.
Samson walked out to bat when India D were under some sort of pressure. Devdutt Padikkal, KS Bharat and Ricky Bhui all scored fifties but none of them could go past the 56-run mark. Nishant Sindhu and Shreyas Iyer then got out cheaply as India D were reduced to 216/5.
Instead of taking the backseat, Samson took the attack to India B and found good support from Saransh Jain. The two put on 91 runs for the sixth wicket before falling in quick succession. Both of them were dismissed by Navdeep Saini.
Overall, Samson has 3774 runs in 105 first-class innings at an average of 38.9.
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