Suryakumar Yadav played an uncharacteristic innings of 26* in 31 balls as he steered India to a tough 6-wicket win in the second T20I against New Zealand in Lucknow on Sunday as the Men in Blue leveled the three-T20I series 1-1.
On a slow and sluggish, turning wicket, New Zealand made 99/8 with skipper Mitchell Santner top-scoring with 19*. In return, Indian batters struggled as Santner and other Kiwi spinners like Ish Sodhi, and Michael Bracewell made life troublesome.
Though Ishan Kishan made 19, it came off 32 balls and Rahul Tripathi fell for 13 runs in 18 balls. It finally came down to Suryakumar’s 26* and Hardik Pandya’s 15* as India won the match with just one ball to spare.
Suryakumar Yadav was also named the Player of the Match for his knock as it became the first Men’s T20I in India to not feature a single six from either team. And a total of 14 fours were hit by batters of both teams.
Veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik feels that the 32-year-old Suryakumar’s problems with shot selection could be seen during this innings.
“His choice of shots was interesting. I think he was trying throughout the innings to be the speedboat that he is. For example, he went for that massive sweep on a big ground even though all four fielders were back on the leg side and that was not the best option for me. That is an area he needs to keep improving on. To get those boundaries in these chases and try and be very effective at it,” said Karthik on Cricbuzz.
“If he had gotten out to that shot, he would have looked back and said that is probably the toughest shot to get a six. The wicket is slow, the bowler is not bowling very fast and you are trying to clear deep square leg on a big boundary. The odds are stacked heavily against you and that is why I say that while it wasn't his most fluent innings, tactically it wasn't his best either. The good thing is that he stayed till the end and made it happen and that was nice," he said.
India has thus leveled the three-match series 1-1 and the decisive third T20I will be played in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
