Suryakumar Yadav has said it was the need of the hour for him to bat the way he did, playing traditional shots at the start before unleashing trademark 360-degree batting to help Mumbai Indians (MI) to a seven-wicket victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the IPL 2024 match at the Wankhede Stadium here.
Suryakumar hammered a 51-ball unbeaten 102 and raised a 143-run partnership with Tilak Varma (37 off 32 balls) as MI reached 174/3 in 17.2 overs after skipper Hardik Pandya (3-31) and Piyush Chawla had combined well to restrict SRH to 173/8 in 20 overs.
Mumbai were in trouble at 31/3, losing Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma and Naman Dhir cheaply. But Suryakumar started cautiously initially but later uncorked some sensational shots to guide the hosts to a memorable victory.
"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. Knew that dew was heavy and I had to bat till the seam came off. Traditional shots came from the Mumbai school of arts," said Suryakumar, who was adjudged Player of the Match for his mesmerising knock.
About unleashing the shots towards the end of the innings, SKY said he waited for the seam to go off the ball and the dew to take its full effect before going after the bowling. "I knew what to do when the ball was seaming and then brought out all the shots that I practiced. I feel the intent would've been the same. As overs would've passed it'd been easier, and I'd have gone big but like how I did today," he said.
Though he was seen limping and grimacing during his knock, the top T20 batter in the world said it was only because of tiredness as he was on the field for a long time. Suryakumar had missed the first few matches of the IPL season because he had suffered an injury during the South Africa series in December 2023 and had later undergone surgery for a sports hernia in Germany.
"I've been doing this after a very long time. After 14th December this is the first time I fielded for 20 overs and batted for 18. I was only feeling tired. But I'm alright," said Suryakumar.
Indian cricket fans would be praying that he would continue to bat in the same vein in the next few months as India will go into the T20 World Cup soon after the IPL and Suryakumar will have to play a crucial role for the team if India had to go all the way in the mega event.
