Mumbai man Suryakumar Yadav says he didn’t try anything different during his maiden hit as India take T20I series in the decider against England at Ahmedabad
Suryakumar Yadav en route his 57 against England at Ahmedabad on Thursday. Pic/AFP
Mumbai boys came to the fore during India’s close, eight-run win over England in the fourth T20I on Thursday at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
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Suryakumar Yadav hogged the limelight with his knock of 57 that started with a spectacular first-ball six but ended with a controversial decision, triggering a debate on the need for a soft signal before referring the decision to the third umpire.
Suryakumar’s Mumbai teammate Shardul Thakur was the game-changer with two key wickets of Ben Stokes (46) and skipper Eoin Morgan (4) in successive balls to derail England’s chase of 186. Shreyas Iyer, another Indian batsman from the Mumbai school of batting, scored a quickfire 18-ball 37 during his 34-run stand with Rishabh Pant.
Suryakumar’s Mumbai Indians teammates—Hardik Pandya (4-0-16-2) and Rahul Chahar (4-0-35-2)—contributed with the ball.
‘Had my plans against Jofra’
The flamboyant Suryakumar had his plans chalked out having faced Jofra Archer in the last three IPLs and watched his international matches. “I [have] watched all his games...whenever a new batter comes in, what plans he has. Obviously, I had my plans as well,” Suryakumar said during a post-match virtual media interaction.
“I just followed the same process which I do while playing for my franchise. I knew this situation really well, I wanted to do the same things. I did not do anything different, I just expressed myself,” he said about his match-winning knock. About his fine leg six on just one leg, Suryakumar in a chat with bcci.tv, said: “I have been playing this shot for a long time in local cricket or domestic cricket or wherever I started my cricket be it rubber ball, tennis ball, playing on cement pitch.”
Controversial decision
Suryakumar’s fine knock ended with a controversial decision. Although third umpire Virender Sharma ruled him out due to inconclusive evidence to overturn K Ananthapadmanabhan’s soft signal, experts were convinced that Dawid Malan’s fingers were not completely under the ball. The compulsion of a soft signal has come under the scanner after the dismissal.
Suryakumar, though, was not disappointed with the decision. “Regarding my dismissal, I am not really disappointed because few things are not in my control. Things that are in my control, I try to control those,” he said.
Today’s fifth and final match is expected to be a cracker of a game where both India and England won’t give an inch. “It’s a final because if we don’t win then we lose the series, and we don’t want to lose the series,” Ben Stokes said.
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