Auluck: Samuels the Gladiator

Samuels the Gladiator - on and off the field

Marlon Samuels produced an innings for the ages at the Eden Gardens on Sunday (April 3) night. It was gladiatorial in conception, avuncular in execution as he bided and bided and bided his time, taking the run-chase deep into the contest before stepping on the gas.

Marlon, magnificent Marlon, had not so much laboured as eased to 50 in 47 deliveries when suddenly, he sprang to life. As if only then remembering that there was an ICC World Twenty20 to be won and lost, he embarked on a spectacular ball-striking spree, warming the cockles with a series of crisply struck strokes straight down the ground to home in on England’s 155 for 9.

With 19 needed off the last over, Samuels sat back and watched young turk Carlos Brathwaite take Ben Stokes apart. 6, 6, 6, 6. Game over. West Indies repeat champions, England crushed and deflated as a trophy that was firmly in their pocket for large parts was snatched away at the proverbial last minute. Eden roared in approbation, Samuels was the toast alongside Brathwaite.

It is more than likely that Samuels had moved into the zone towards the later stages of his extraordinary innings, that he may not remember much about how he despatched each delivery exactly in the manner in which he wanted to. If he does requisition a video to watch himself with bat in hand, he will come away impressed and potentially a little awed. But if he also watches some of his other actions, he should certainly not be as impressed and awed.

One of the more difficult things to maintain is grace under pressure. It’s alright to be emotional, to wear one’s heart on his sleeve, to give vent to feelings, to add colour and character and drama to proceedings. It is not alright to be disrespectful and downright offensive, as a fair bit of Samuels’s behaviour was immediately before and much after the trophy was won.

Samuels has had a heavy cross to bear over the last several years. A two-year suspension in 2008 for his involvement in match-fixing. A bat-throwing brain fade with Shane Warne at the receiving end during the Big Bash League in 2013. The cheeky, hat-clutched-to-chest, raised-hand-to-temple send-off to Stokes in the Grenada Test of last April. Reticent and reserved and often insulated from his teammates even inside his dressing room, Samuels the latent volcano erupts from time to time. With the bat, like in the World T20 finals in 2012 and on Sunday, and without it too.

No sooner had Brathwaite smashed Stokes for the third of his four straight sixes on Sunday than Samuels had a go at his old mate in full hearing of Kumar Dharmasena, the standing umpire. Predictably, charges were levelled, Samuels was fined 30% of his match fee. Then, after the fourth six, as the rest of his team congregated to celebrate an astonishing and popular triumph, he ripped his shirt off and charged towards the English dugout, spewing expletives. Before things could get out of hand, he was enveloped in a cocoon of love by his support staff with Phil Simmons and Curtly Ambrose prominent among them. Gently, they prised Samuels back into the confines of the celebratory huddle because after all, it was a moment of celebration, not retribution. And then, to cap it all off, when the player of the match arrived at the press conference, he lifted both his still padded legs on to the table and held forth for five minutes, speaking his mind on Stokes and Warne but also stating his case as a family man. Not sure Samuels will look back at this as one of his prouder moments.