Coming to the crease in the third over after the Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma had asked the Delhi Daredevils to bat, Sanju Samson scored 60 off 48 balls to help set the visitors a 165-run target in Delhi. The youngster from Kerala built a 71-run partnership with JP Duminy for the fifth wicket to set the game up for his side, something that he had worked on ahead of the ninth edition of the IPL.

While he looked in good nick in earlier games, Sanju Samson was able to convert the start into a match-winning knock only in the match against MI. After battling it out in the middle, the top-order bat departed in the 17th over as DD looked to add on to the total. “One always wants to score a hundred in every match and be there till the end. I think I will learn from this and come out better next time,” he said while reflecting on the innings which earned him the Man of the Match award.

To be there till the end and finish matches is something Sanju has looked forward to do for his teams. The batsman from Kerala has been preparing for the role of a finisher ahead of the 2016 season. “I love to finish games. It takes a bit of character and it’s a great challenge to finish matches and win matches for your team. So I love to finish games. I did that in the domestic level this season and I hope I can do it this year in the IPL,” he had said ahead of the ninth edition of the IPL.

“Before the tournament began I had a talk with my video analyst and coaches and they told me about how the opponents will (look to) come at me this time when the tournament starts. Obviously we have lot of technology and opponents think about you and they come with a good clear plan. And since I knew what would be coming at me I was prepared for it,” he explained while speaking about his preparation.

Sanju says he draws inspiration from two of the best in the game – Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. “If you see Virat bhai, how many matches he wins for the Indian team, and Dhoni bhai, who does it always. It is a great motivation for a guy like me. I have learnt a lot from the ICC World T20 which was played in India. So I will try to do something from what I’ve learnt,” he mentions.

Elaborating on what he had learnt from observing the India Test captain, Sanju pointed out after his match-winning knock against MI, “I picked up one big point from watching Virat bhai bat. During each of his innings, he (Virat) was scoring consistently. But the (important) thing was that he played risk-free cricket in the T20 format (during ICC World T20). I think it is a great lesson from all youngsters that we can play risk-free cricket in T20 and get runs too and that’s what I applied today.”

During the match at Kotla, Sanju held up one end and later found an able ally in the experienced JP Duminy to build the partnership which shifted the momentum in DD’s favour enabling them to set up a total that the hosts could defend. Speaking about batting with one of the best finishers in the game, the top-order batsman said, “He gave me great support in the middle. We had a good clear plan. We wanted to hit a certain target (and) we were achieving it really nicely because of the partnership. He is a great guy to bat with. I enjoyed batting with him.”

“It is mainly about targeting some opponents and some bowlers. The decision has to clear. Against a good team like the Mumbai Indians we have to be very good in our planning and we were this time,” he added.

Discussing their plan while setting a target for the visiting team, the Daredevils one-drop batsman said, “We talked about it when we had the team meeting. We wanted to have a good foundation in the (first) 15 overs where we had wickets in hand. (Because) we had wickets in hand, we could set 160 as a good total. And we got it. It was a good match.”

His contribution had helped lay the foundation on which DD could build to set MI a stiff target. Asked what had helped him convert the start into a valuable knock in the match, he said, “It is a big tournament. For an individual like me, for a cricketer like me, I think it is a great opportunity to come here and perform. So there are a lot of expectations and pressures. In this game I kept it simple and I never had any expectation. That is why I think I had a good day today.”