Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Suryakumar Yadav stepped up at the Wankhede with a magnificent ton to hand Mumbai Indians their fourth win of IPL 2024.
Riding on Suryakumar’s unbeaten 102, MI brushed aside Sunrisers Hyderabad by 7 wickets on Monday night.
Suryakumar Yadav put on a display of 360 degree hitting, something he is known for. The stylish batter scored peeled off his century in 51 balls to win the player of the match award.
Surya storming into top form will be pleasing to both MI and the Indian men’s cricket team which will be taking part in the T20 World Cup next month.
The 33-year-old top-order batter is an integral part of India’s T20I setup and will have a major role to play in the upcoming T20 showpiece to be co-hosted by the USA and Caribbean islands.
If India hope to lift the trophy, Surya’s bat needs to do a lot of talking.
What makes Surya’s century so special?
Sports Hernia Recovery
Surya has had a tough few months prior to the IPL. He underwent a sports hernia surgery and had a long recovery period. The right-hander was away from cricket, playing the waiting game to attain full fitness and get back on the field.
He also had to sit out from the first few matches for MI in the ongoing IPL. And in the games that he played initially, Surya was brought in as an Impact Sub in order to manage his workload.
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Surya is happy with the innings he played against SRH at Wankhede.
“I’ve been doing this after a very long time,” said SKY during the post-match presentation.
“After 14th December this is the first time I fielded for 20 overs and batted for 18. But I’m alright. I feel it was the need of the hour for me to win. Three wickets were down and I needed to play till the end,” he added.
MI”s batting coach Kieron Pollard also praised the star batter after his splendid century.
“His knock was phenomenal. He played the situation just about perfectly when he went in,” Pollard told the media in the post-match press conference.
“It was a tricky situation where the ball was nipping around and moving around a bit. He got beaten a few times but held his nerve, and that’s the sort of discipline we ask for. Then he got into his work about maneuvering the field, placing the gaps, and counter-attacking. But it’s no surprise for us; that’s how he practices and plays. And when he scores, and he scores big, you often come out on the winning side,” Pollard added.
Focus Shifted To T20 WC?
With MI far away from the playoff contention, the silver-lining to Surya’s innings was him getting back to form right before the T20 World Cup.
Surya has scored 334 runs in 9 matches so far in this IPL at a superb strike-rate of 176.72 and his latest exploits would surely have delighted the Indian team management.
But have the players themselves shifted their focus to the T20 World Cup already? Pollard says no.
“At the end of the day we we’re all here to play the entire IPL,” Pollard said. “Sometimes when we think too far ahead like thinking about World Cups, all these things could affect performances. For us in our camp the most important thing is finishing off the IPL and let’s see what happens after that.”
Surya has the ability to singlehandedly take the game away from the opposition and he has done that both in IPL and at the international level.
In the 60 T20Is Surya has played for India, he has accumulated 2141 runs at an average of 45.55 and a strike-rate of 171.55.
Suryakumar has the second-most T20I centuries (four) for India after skipper Rohit Sharma (five).
India will want their World Cup bound stars to be in good rhythm before entering the global tournament and Surya has certainly taken a step in the right direction.
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