Suryakumar Yadav: Mr 360 is Mr. Invincible too
Suryakumar Yadav: Mr 360 is Mr. Invincible too: In the third delivery of the 11th over, KL Rahul creamed Aiden Markram for a six to bring up his half-century in 24 balls.
This was the quickest fifty scored by an Indian hitter against South Africa by a wide margin. With his upper body tilting back slightly and the torso standing on tiptoes, Suryakumar Yadav smashed a six over point to complete his fifty and break the record for 34 balls.
His 61 off 22 balls propelled India to 237-3; a mountain South Africa couldn’t scale; they finished 17 runs short of the target despite David Miller’s century, giving India a comfortable series victory.
The final score may suggest that South Africa gave India a good chase, but the visitors were rarely in the hunt. Only Miller’s hundred and Quinton de Kock’s unbeaten 69 decreased the margin of the defeat.
T20
As has been the case with India’s previous successes, Yadav was at the forefront. Some batsmen can make batting look simple and beautiful. Currently, a few others, like Yadav, make it look ridiculous. The world had better get used to his outrageous T20 brilliance.
Whoever the bowlers are, whoever the ground is, however, the conditions are, whatever the situation is, a match-defining Yadav knock has become an inevitability in contemporary times.
Cricket in India celebrates its pioneers. Tests were prompted by Sunil Gavaskar, One-Day Internationals by Sachin Tendulkar, and Twenty-Over Matches by Yadav. Others came before them and would come after them, but they were the most potent catalyst for transformation.
India’s batting lineup always has featured winners in this format, from MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh through Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, even before Yadav emerged. Two other batters of his county clocked 1000 T20I runs faster than him. But none perhaps had such a profound impact on a squad as Yadav has since his debut last year.
India’s batting appears unbeatable as it stands right now even without him. Nonetheless, Yadav gives the impression that they can do everything they set their minds to. He’s Mr. 360 and Mr. Invincible in India.
Even though he possesses several talents, his ability to enhance a positive circumstance stands out among the rest. He could transform common building materials like brick and mortar into precious metals.
He walked to the plate, windmilling his shoulders aggressively, as India cruised to victory at 10 runs per over.
Score
The openers had laid the platform with 96 runs from 9.5 overs. When Yadav joined Kohli in the middle at the demise of Rahul, India’s score read 107/2 in 11.1 overs. Teams would be satisfied with a steady rate of six or seven runs per over, which is slow even by today’s Twenty20 standards. But not if Yadav is in the area.
Keshav Maharaj started things off with a lowly ball. Yadav regarded the field with suspicion. One would expect him to take precautions. After all, the game might still be affected by roughly 10 overs. Just then, his team had lost two wickets.
My question is, “What does Yadav do with the next ball?” The next ball he faces, he sweeps for two. This was always one of his go-to strokes because it was reliable.
If he misplays the ball completely, like Rahul does, Maharaj has the line set up so that he would be out leg before. But Yadav swept anyway, even though the ball was less full than the one before.
By extending the front leg, he could position it beside the ball and move it with precision, creating a more advantageous line. In fact, that was one of the safest shots he made during his 22-ball 66.
When confronted with a Kagiso Rabada short ball, he surprisingly moves to the off-side, waits for it until it almost brushes his helmet, and then, with a slight twist of the wrists, works the ball over the keeper’s head.
Era
Rabada was shocked, and his ex-teammate from the Mumbai Indians, de Kock, appeared equally astounded. Just getting warmed up, Yadav was about to give the South Africans a T20 batting clinic that would have brought back fond memories of another South African from a different era: AB de Villiers.
Yadav, on the other hand, is a different kind of batter. Although de Villiers had greater power and strokes, he is wristier and more minimalist than his rival. However, both share characteristics such as sound judgment, the ability to make snap decisions, and a computational engine-like capacity for determining the most effective stroke in the least amount of time.
Their path may be hazardous, but they’re strong-willed and determined enough to pull it off. He scored 20 runs against one of the best bowlers in the game (Rabada), including a whirling six over fine-leg that defied geometry.
Players
Unlike de Villiers, he maintains his physique even after running a good distance to retrieve the ball. Although Lungi Ngidi bowled a really wide delivery, Yadav went for it with his back foot on the middle stump line and his front leg airborne, almost at stump height.
He hit it down the middle and scored a few runs. In his prime, he takes on the appearance of a rubber man, his muscles and tendons being so pliable that he can manipulate them at leisure.
As a perfect testament to his burgeoning prowess, he can make the spectators forget that Kohli is batting at the other end. In contrast to Yadav’s strike rate of 275, Kohli’s was hovering around 200.
That’s why nobody took notice of Kohli until he started hitting sixes.
The pair splattered 102 runs in only 7.2 runs, the partnership a blur of boundaries, guaranteeing that the relatively tranquil middle overs fetched 114 runs in 10 overs. This is the difference Yadav has made; the run rate no longer experiences a dip in the middle. India may have scored 200 runs without him, but they only managed 237 thanks to his efforts.
On a muggy and foggy evening, when the ball slipped out of their palms due to the dew, they all benefited from South Africa’s poor bowling.
Rabada was flat and uninteresting, rarely as he ever is. It seemed as though Enrich Nortje had lost all of his customary venom and fury and was instead bowling over in his sleep.
Ngidi appeared despondent, and his unpredictable behavior was reflected in the repeated full tosses he made at the end of his life, each one reaching up to his waist.
Except for the truly remarkable Maharaj, everyone else simply withered under the bombardment. Maybe the bowling was terrible because of some outstanding batting. Yadav makes the bowlers he faces appear more pitiful with each passing day.
Read more: Preliminary thoughts on Suryakumar Yadav from Ponting