IPL 2020 | India must be greatest team in history if they can't find place for Samson, admits Harsha Bhogle

It was one of IPL’s greatest games played in the history of the competition, with 449 runs and just eight wickets on offer. In a pure batting paradise masqueraded as the Sharjah wicket, Kings XI Punjab got themselves off to a flyer with the openers putting on a 183-run partnership. Chief destroyer for the Punjab-based franchise was Mayank Agarwal, who scored a scintillating 50-ball 106, in a swashbuckling innings. Combined with the late efforts from Glenn Maxwell and Nicholas Pooran, the Punjab side got to a total of 223, which on the night was not enough.

“Tewatia was 8 off 19 and then 53 off 31. If you had told him that you would end up with a strike-rate of 171, he wouldn’t have believed it. What it’s going to do though is take away Steve Smith’s brilliance and the artist Sanju Samson’s efforts. What a player Samson is if he continues to play like this and India don’t have a room for him in the team, then India must be the greatest team in history,” said Harsha Bhogle in a Cricbuzz video. 

However, Bhogle felt that the entire encounter was an incredible buffet, which never seemed to get over. Despite the great finishing, Bhogle added that his only concern is that sixes have become a default option to score in Sharjah. 

“It was like an incredible buffet which never seemed to get over. There was one great dish after the other, if you had that one dish, you would feel that was great. This game would have been remembered as Mayank Agarwal’s game, Sanju Samson’s knock but we ultimately recall it as Tewatia’s game. What a game My only concern was that sixes were starting to become the default option. Some matches are bat versus bowl and its brilliant but today it was bat versus bat and what a drama.”