Chennai, April 11 (IANS) Chennai Super Kings (CSK) wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson admitted that even a brief lean patch can trigger significant self-doubt, but credited a “back to basics” approach for him making an unbeaten 115 off 56 balls in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 clash against Delhi Capitals at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.

Samson, the hero in India’s 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup win, began IPL 2026 with a string of low scores after being traded to CSK last year. But on Saturday, Samson lit up Chepauk with his scintillating stroke-play, particularly through the off-side, to hit 15 fours and four sixes at a strike-rate of 205.36.

Apart from being the first wicketkeeper-batter to hit a century for CSK, Samson is also the second batter after KL Rahul to score a hundred for three different IPL teams – DC, RR, and now CSK.

“Feels great thanks to you (Ravi Shastri). I think you seem to be my lucky person to meet before every game, so please come before every game, sir. To be very honest, I think that, however many forms you are in, however many matches you have won for your country, a couple of failures definitely put a lot of doubts in your mind.

“But I just wanted to go back and do my basics and believe in myself and just stick to my scoring patterns, actually. So a lot of thoughts came, I think, should I go harder in the start, or should I change my game plan? But I definitely want to stick to what was working, and luckily it came off beautifully today,” Samson said in a mid-innings chat with the broadcasters.

He also noted that the Chepauk surface offered early challenges for the batters, particularly during the Power-play, before easing up as the game progressed. “I think to start, it was definitely holding a bit. It was sticking a bit, and when Axar bowled in the Power-play, the ball was holding with the new ball.

“But when the ball became old, I think it got a great wicket to bat on. And we just stuck to our basics, and Aayush definitely had a great partnership with Aayush (Mhatre, who made 59). I think he’s such a great youngster. I think I really enjoyed batting with him,” he added.

When asked about the team’s tactical approach to setting a total in the modern T20 era, Samson spoke about favouring a more aggressive, open-ended mindset. “Nowadays, you can’t set a target in mind. You just have to, once you are set in, I think you just have to look at it as a big score you can put on the board.

“So I think that was the plan to just keep going. We didn’t lose many wickets. We had a very long batting order to come. So it was just about picking your bowlers, picking your options, and sticking to contribute as much as possible,” he noted.

Samson expressed confidence in his bowling unit’s ability to defend the tall total, provided they strike early in the second innings. “It’s definitely a challenging score, to be very honest, I think. But with the amount of bowlers that we have, I think if we have a good powerplay, it will be really good,” he concluded.

–IANS

nr/bsk/