India defeated Ireland in the second and final Twenty20 match of the series with a 4-run victory to take a 2-0 series lead. Ireland came close to chasing down the visitors’ massive score of 225/7 in 20 overs, but ultimately fell short by 4 runs as pacer Umran Malik bowled an outstanding final over, holding off 8 runs off from the final 3 balls to secure the victory. Deepak Hooda scored a brilliant century earlier in the game (104 off 57 balls), and Sanju Samson, making his comeback, contributed with a solid stroke of 77 off just 42 deliveries.
When Ajay Jadeja, a former Indian player, asked Sanju Samson about his reaction on missing a century in theshortest format of cricket, Sanju replied with: “It was a good game. The partnership we had, in that type of condition, there was some movement off the wicket and the bowlers were bowling in the right areas. I think Hooda made it very easy for me. He started hitting from the word go. We communicated really well, I was happy to just give the strike to him when he was hitting like that.
When I started going, he also did the same. I’m very happy for Hooda, and some day, soon, I would like to get to that kind of a score (century). I’m very happy with the way I also batted.”
