Guyana: Dynamic batter Suryakumar Yadav joined an exclusive list of players with 100 sixes in men’s T20I cricket as India stayed alive in their ongoing series against the West Indies with an emphatic seven-wicket victory over the Caribbean side here on Tuesday.
Suryakumar smashed four sixes during a brilliant knock of 83 in the third-match of the T20I series against the West Indies and in the process became just the third men’s player from India behind star duo Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to have hit a century of sixes in the shortest format of the game.
No one in the world has hit more sixes than Rohit’s 182, with Kohli (117) and Suryakumar (101) chasing their experienced captain and among a group of 14 men’s players in international cricket to have gone past the magical three figure milestone, an ICC report said.
Suryakumar was at his magnificent best against the West Indies as he combined well with young gun Tilak Varma (49 not out) to ensure India successfully chased down the West Indies’ modest score of 159/5 for the loss of just three wickets and with more than two overs remaining.
India’s victory means the five-match series is now well poised with the West Indies leading 2-1 and the remaining two games scheduled to take place in Florida on Saturday and Sunday.
Spin duo Kuldeep Yadav (3/28) and Axar Patel (1/24) put the clamps on the West Indies to reduce the hosts to a meagre total after they had won the toss and elected to bat.
Suryakumar wasn’t fazed by the early loss of openers Shubman Gill (6) and Yashavi Jaiswal (1) as he terrorised the opposition bowlers with the clean hitting that he has become famous for in recent times.
A total of 64 of Suryakumar’s 83 runs came through boundaries and, by the time he was out in the 13th over, India was in a dominant position to cruise home under the watchful eyes of skipper Hardik Pandya (20 not out) and Varma.
While Varma fell agonisingly short of a second consecutive half-century in just his third international appearance, Suryakumar was suitably impressed with the left-hander’s maturity and believes the 20-year-old has a bright future in the game.
“I feel for his age, he’s showing amazing maturity,” Suryakumar said of Varma said post-match.
“He knows his game very well what he wants to do when he comes into bat and today he was very clear what he wanted to do and he’s mentally very strong,” Suryakumar said.
“That’s the most important thing, what you need when you come into Indian dressing room and you play at this level,” he added.
