Image Credit- AP
The way Suryakumar Yadav plans ahead and constructs
angles to play his trick shots behind square is what makes him so brilliant.
Perhaps the most outrageous shot in T20 cricket is his trademark Supla.
It was anticipated that Suryakumar’s Supla would
thrive in the rarefied Highveld air and on a swift Wanderers pitch. Prior to
the series finale between South Africa and India in Johannesburg, 433 runs had
been scored overall in the most recent Twenty20 match played here. However,
Thursday was not the same. Even in the powerplay, seamers were taking pace off
the ball due to the unusually sluggish and dry track conditions. Even though
Suryakumar was unable to stop the Supla, he managed to overcome the circumstances
and the South African attack in different ways.
In the end, Suryakumar (100) outscored South Africa
(95), with a strike rate of almost 200 on 55 of his runs scored in front of
square. At one point, he was hitting 27 off 25 balls. In the thirteenth over,
Suryakumar abandoned his premeditation and held off on his shots, hitting them
in the arc between deep midwicket and wide long-on when Andile Phehlukwayo
attempted to bowl slower balls into the pitch. Knowing that his power would be
most effective under these circumstances, he held his shape long enough and
waited for the ball to come to him.
In that over, Suryakumar outscored Phehlukwayo 6,4,6,6,
and in that instant, he overcame a sluggish start on a slow pitch.
Then, despite Nandre Burger’s attempt to hide the ball
outside off, Suryakumar stepped inside the line and used his strong bottom hand
to push the left-arm fast bowler between deep midwicket and wide long-on.
Another reminder that he can enter any area of the field was this.
Suryakumar is tied for the most T20I hundreds with
four, and he has amassed them all in a variety of settings, including
Nottingham, Rajkot, Mount Maunganui, and Johannesburg. In a match that India
had to win in August in the West Indies, which along with the USA will host the
T20 World Cup next year, he had fallen 17 short of another century. Thus,
Suryakumar is aware that he has what it takes to win in any circumstance.
India could not extract much from a three-match series
in which the first game was abandoned without a ball being bowled and the
second game was delayed due to rain. There are still some questions about
India’s preparation for the World Cup and the IPL, given that they only have
three more Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) left before the competition, but one
thing is for sure: Suryakumar is the best T20 batsman in the game.