Asia Cup: Suryakumar Yadav celebrates his half-century against Hong Kong.© AFP
Suryakumar Yadav stayed true to his billing as the best-ranked Indian T20I batter in ICC charts on Wednesday, as he hit six sixes and six fours against Hong Kong to take India past the 190-mark in 20 overs. After a slow start, India were in the danger of putting up a below-par total. But after arriving in the 14th over, Surykumar also instantly made an impact. He combined with Virat Kohli (58*) and struck a great stand. Then, in the last over by Haroon Arshad, Suryakumar hit four sixes to take India to 192/2 in 20 overs.
The No. 4 batter reached the half-century mark in just 22 balls. His range of shots was awesome. In the mid-innings break, Suryakumar revealed the secret behind the unorthodox shots that he played.
“I haven’t practised those strokes before. But before, when I used to play with my friends in my younger days, then we used to play a lot of rubber ball cricket on hard cement, so it all has come from there,” Suryakumar said on Star Sports.
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“I feel it (the pitch) was sticky before and later on when I was sitting and having a chat with Rohit bhai and Rishabh, I said that when I go into bat, I will try and take the tempo a little higher. We aimed around 170-175 but the way things were going, I just kept expressing myself. Very happy with the way it progressed. I feel it’s a good score on this wicket.”
Suryakumar’s blitz helped lift India’s total well beyond Hong Kong’s reach as the Rohit Sharma-led team registered a 40-run win that saw them qualify for the Super-4 stage, having beaten Pakistan in the opening match.
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