Team India vice-captain Suryakumar Yadav finally struck form, smashing a match-winning 83 off 49 balls with 4 sixes and 10 fours to set up his side’s seven-wicket win over West Indies in the must-win third T20I at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Tuesday. West Indies still lead the series 2-1 after the five-match T20I series heads to the USA for the final two games this weekend.
On the course of his innings, Suryakumar Yadav notched up his 100th six of his T20I career. The World No. 1 T20I batter now has 101 sixes in 49 innings, which is the joint-second fewest innings along with Chris Gayle. Evin Lewis tops the list, having notched up 100 sixes in 48 innings.
‘Sky’ also won his 12th ‘Player of the Match’ award the joint second-most with Team India captain Rohit Sharma and only behind Virat Kohli’s tally of 15 awards. He has aggregated 1780 runs in T20Is, the fourth highest by an Indian in T20Is, surpassing Shikhar Dhawan’s tally of 1759. Virat Kohli (4,008), Rohit Sharma (3,853) and KL Rahul (2,265) are the three batters ahead of him.
WATCH Suryakumar Yadav hammer a match-winning fifty HERE…
Form is temporary. Surya is permanent!
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“It was really important to be myself when I went in to bat in the powerplay, that’s what the team management also wanted. I have practised these (ramps and scoops) strokes a lot and I love doing that,” Suryakumar Yadav said after the third T20I match.
Suryakumar Yadav and his Mumbai Indians teammate Tilak Varma posted a 87-run partnership for the third wicket as Tilak went on to remain unbeaten on 49 off 37 balls with 1 six and 4 fours. Tilak Varma now has joint second-most number of runs after his first three T20I innings along with ‘Sky’ among Indian batters with 139 runs. Deepak Hooda holds the record among Indians with 172 runs.
“We (himself and Tilak) have batted together for a long time, we both understand how each other bats and the way he batted, it gave me a lot of confidence. It was a great innings from him (Tilak) at the other end. It was running on the back of my mind (that India had never lost three T20Is in a row) but at the same time we spoke in the team meeting, our captain said someone needs to put their hand up and win the match, glad I was able to do that,” Suryakumar added.