T20 World Cup 2026: ‘It felt like a computer was batting’ - Rashid Latif in awe of Sanju Samson’s knock vs England

Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif believes Sanju Samson has been the standout performer of the tournament, saying his knock against England looked like a computer batting against bowlers. The wicketkeeper-batter scored 89 off 42 balls in the T20 World Cup 2026 semi-final against England at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on March 5.

Jacob Bethell scored 105 for England, but it was Samson who had the last laugh as the Men in Blue secured a seven-run victory to qualify for the final. Earlier in the tournament, the right-handed batter had scored 97* against West Indies in the Super Eight clash, which effectively served as a virtual quarterfinal.

“Sanju Samson jis tarah se batting kia hai, aisa laga jaise computer batting kar raha tha. (The way Sanju Samson batted, it felt like a computer was batting). What spinner or what pacers. He got the momentum so fast especially after getting dropped by Harry Brook. and then he does the wicketkeeping in the match silently. We did not even get to know,” said Latif on the show Haarna Mana Hai.

“He is a fantastic composed player and the way he carried on the momentum in both the matches (against West Indies and England), in my eyes, Sanju Samson should be the player of the tournament. The way he has played cricket, we all have been astonished. And the credit goes to the Indian team management that they trusted him even after his loss of form. And Sanju Samson has delivered with a punch,” he added.

Former Pakistan cricketer Ahmed Shehzad highlighted how Indian batters pushed aggressively to post a total exceeding 250 runs, stating that if it had been the Pakistan team, they might have settled for a score closer to 225. India eventually posted 253/7, thanks to Sanju Samson’s 89 and valuable cameos from Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, and Tilak Varma.

“It was a very close match. Any team could have won it. I guess India benefits from the kind of infrastructure they have built. IPL and all prepare the players for such stages. It has benefitted them a lot. They way their players absorb pressure, it helps them to get past the crush moments. They were clear that on that kind of pitch, they had to get past 250 runs. Sanju Samson was phenomenal but then the batsman who came at the later stage also played like that,” said Shehzad.

“The kind of shots Tilak Verma played against jofra Archer were phenomenal too. Tilak knows that two fielders are up and Jofra Archer will bowl a Yorker at the wicket and Tilak pre-mediated his shot and made the yorker a full toss with going back and hitting the six. The second six he hit, it came as he knew that Jofra Archer would bowl a slow one or a short one and he hit the six. If it was Pakistan, we would have finished on 225 and would have put the onus on our bowling. But the Indian batsman knew that on that pitch, they needed to get past 250. And that’s what won them the semi-final,” he added.