Samson finally 'figures things out' to put in a strong-man display

Sanju Samson can flex, and he did when he reached his first ODI hundred - a dozen years since making his debut for Kerala in domestic cricket, but only 16 ODIs into his international career. He doesn't lack talent - but hasn't always had a lot of opportunities - and with a bend of his elbow and a gesture to his bicep, Samson indicated that he still had strength to keep going; and his team-mates agreed.

"He has been a phenomenal performer over the years, and hasn't gotten enough chances for different reasons," India's captain KL Rahul told the host broadcaster at the post-match presentation. "There are world-class players [in the Indian side]. Given this opportunity, he capitalised."

As an IPL and a domestic-cricket regular, Samson's skillset is fairly well-known to followers of Indian cricket: play aggressively from the get-go, and don't slow down. And that has also been the story of his brief international career. Before Thursday, Samson had played 15 ODIs, scored 402 runs, including three half-centuries, at an average of 50.25, albeit magnified by five not outs.

In ten of those innings, he batted at No. 5 or 6, though he has spent the bulk of his domestic career at No. 3. So Rahul is right in that limited scope to use Samson in places where he is most effective may have impacted his numbers and performances. But in Paarl, that changed.

Samson was carded to bat at No. 3 and was called on in the fifth over, which meant he had most of the innings to show what he could do. With time on his side, he was patient, and he read conditions and circumstances well. His first three boundaries relied on timing rather than power, and came in the space of 22 balls - an indication that he was not going to go after settling down.

"I think that's the trick," he said as he accepted his Player-of-the-Match award. "This format gives you some extra time to understand the wicket, [and] understand the bowler. It gives you an extra ten or 20 balls to figure things out."

He brought up India's hundred in the 19th over, which was also when Rahul was dismissed, and Tilak Varma, playing in his fourth ODI, came to the crease. At that stage, the innings needed consolidating, and despite their lack of international inexperience, Samson and Tilak rebuilt. They went ten overs without scoring a boundary, and Keshav Maharaj bowled four of them.

"As the ball got old, it got a bit slower," Samson said. "When KL got out, we had a momentum shift, and Maharaj bowled really well."

But Samson and Tilak got through that period. Tilak hit his first four in 39 balls when he slogged Beuran Hendricks to deep midwicket in the 30th over, and things started to open up but not entirely. It was only in the 40th over that Samson and Tilak "decided to go a bit harder," as Samson put it; and it was Samson himself who got that started.

He pulled Nandre Burger on to the grass banks to start a ten-over period in which India scored 93 runs, and up his own scoring rate, which had hovered in the 60s throughout the innings. After working his way to 50 off 66 balls, 64 off 90 balls and 86 off 101, Samson scored 22 runs off the last 13 balls he faced - a reminder of old, maybe, and a nod to the potential he has always had, and which, some will say, has remained unfulfilled.

"Really interesting and emotional," was how he described the feeling of reaching an ODI century in the immediate aftermath. "I have been putting in a lot of work always."

And he showed that with his celebration. His strong-man display could be interpreted as an indication that he has been exercising his muscles - and his mind - and has played some small part in helping the team move on from the disappointment of losing the World Cup final.

No one can ever equate a series win in South Africa - even though it is only India's second - to the feeling of winning a tournament; and no-one needs to. Fifty-over cricket was the centre of this sport's world at the World Cup, but it will take a backseat over the next year. And that's also why South Africa could afford to be "maybe a bit pap [soft] after a World Cup," as stand-in captain Aiden Markram put it at the post-match press conference.

"Guys put everything on the line, and we didn't achieve what we wanted to," he said.

And so, maybe, they are a little spent. But the concerns that cropped up in that campaign were brought home: do they always make the right decisions at the toss, and can they chase confidently?

In the first ODI, Markram opted to bat in bowler-friendly conditions at the Wanderers, and South Africa were shot out for 116 inside 28 overs.

Then he chose to bowl first in 35-degree heat in Paarl, where his attack conceded 296.

He was adamant that neither of those were decisions he regretted, and the defeats that came from both were down to a lack of execution and application.

It's worth remembering, though, that in the middle of those two results, he got it right. In Gqeberha, Markram put India in, South Africa restricted them to 211 and won by eight wickets. Their biggest positive from the series was on display in that match.

"Tony de Zorzi is the stand out. He played the type of cricket that we are looking for," white-ball coach Rob Walter said at the post-match press conference.

A century in his fourth ODI, and 81 off 87 in his fifth, saw de Zorzi finish as the leading run-scorer in the series, by more than 100 runs from his nearest rival - B Sai Sudharsan. At a time when the future of South Africa cricket, especially their white-ball outfits given that seven of their ODI World Cup squad are over the age of 30, is up for discussion, de Zorzi is a glimpse into the future.

Like India, South Africa will only turn their attention to fifty-over cricket midway at some point after the T20 World Cup next year; but when they do, both teams have players to peg their batting blueprints on. If anything came out of this contest, that has to be it.