On the backfoot slap over fine leg, Suryakumar Yadav has revealed that this has been one shot that he played all his life, starting from its development in local cricket before international cricket. Shardul Thakur, on the other hand, talked about his plans of keeping it simple in the 20th over.
When Suryakumar Yadav was promoted at No.3, there was a pleasant shock around the arena, in a must-win game for the Men in Blue. The Mumbaikar didn’t disappoint, hooking his first delivery off to the leg-side boundary, clearing the fence with ease against Jofra Archer’s snorter. While that was viewed as the shot of the series by many, Suryakumar Yadav was left unfazed about the shot, revealing that he has been playing it all his life.
The 30-year-old, who made his second appearance in the Indian jersey, stated that he went out to bat wanting to just express himself. In his first appearance for the country, it was Ishan Kishan who took away the limelight but in his second, Suryakumar ensured that he was up to the task, with his stroke-making ability.
“Not like that, I have always seen Jofra Archer bowl short deliveries upfront, I have played against him in the IPL, so I was aware of his plans. I have been playing this shot all my life, local cricket, domestic cricket and from where I started playing cricket. So this shot has developed from there and has come into international cricket now,” Suryakumar told Shardul in a video posted by BCCI.tv.
He also showed his happiness over his innings helping India win the fourth T20I, pushing the series to the decider. Earlier in the day, the right-hander was also named in the ODI setup, for the first time, following his stint with Mumbai in their victorious Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign.
“First of all, I feel very happy that we won the game. It has been my dream that I play for India and win games for the country. And when my batting came, I just expressed myself, didn’t complicate too much. Yes, there were a few butterflies in my stomach but I knew that if I expressed myself early on, it will become easier for me,” he added.
Meanwhile, the focus towards the end of the match turned towards Shardul Thakur, in the 16th over, under pressure against England’s two white-ball giants – Ben Stokes and Eoin Morgan. Like his Mumbai counterpart, Shardul stuck by his plans and expressed himself with two wickets in two balls to turn the encounter in India’s favour.
“When the partnership between Bairstow and Stokes was going, there was a lot of discussion on the field, between bowlers and the captain. I got the chance and picked two wickets and from there on, knew that we could seal the deal and those wickets were highly helpful for us.”
Having done the hard yards, the pacer was put under the spot of defending 23 runs in the last over. With the ball slipping away, owing to due, the task looked arduous at first before Shardul stuck by his plans to complete a memorable win for India, to keep the series alive and kicking.
“Actually in the end, 20th over, Rohit Sharma just came up and told me to look at the venue and advised me to make the batsmen play to the longer end. Rohit only asked me to back my own plans and he asserted that if I bowled good lines, I would get the job done and the batsmen would be under pressure. So my focus was just on bowling dot balls and keep focusing on executing it well.”
