Suryakumar Yadav made 80 runs in 1st T20I v Australia and won Player of the Match.
India registered a brilliant win in the first of the five T20Is against Australia which was played in Vizag on November 23, 2023. And stand-in captain Suryakumar Yadav shined with the bat on his leadership debut as well.
Australia was asked to bat first by Yadav, who had won the toss. Thanks to a fifty by Steve Smith and a scintillating 110 by Josh Inglis, Australia posted 208/3 in 20 overs. In reply, Suryakumar Yadav hammered 80 and along with Ishan Kishan’s 58 and their 100-plus runs partnership, took India to the door of victory.
Rinku Singh then put the finishing touches with 22* in 14 balls as India won by 2 wickets and recorded their highest-ever chase in T20Is.
Suryakumar Yadav played an amazing knock, taking only 42 balls for his 80 runs and hit 4 sixes and 9 fours in his innings. When he was batting, on-air commentators Ravi Shastri and Matthew Hayden were discussing his gameplay.
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Shastri asked Hayden how can someone stop Suryakumar Yadav when he was in such great form. In reply, Matthew Hayden hilariously trolled Suryakumar Yadav on his failures in 50-over cricket and said that someone should tell him its an ODI match.
Here is the conversation:
Shastri asked: "How do you stop Suryakumar Yadav when he is in this top form?"
Hayden replied: "Tell him it's an ODI !!"
The conversation proved to be too funny for former Pakistani speedster Shoaib Akhtar, who shared it on social media, praising Matthew Hayden for his retort and reacted with laughing emojis.
Suryakumar Yadav has himself admitted that he has not been able to crack the code in ODIs and it is something he is worried about. Surya has played 37 ODIs, but made just 773 runs with 4 fifties and average of 25.76, and strike rate of 105.32.
In contrast in T20Is, where he is the no.1 ranked batter, Surya has 1921 runs in 54 matches with 3 centuries and 16 fifties at a strike rate of 173.37 and average of 46.85.