It was the Suryakumar Yadav show in the IPL 2023 on Friday night as Mumbai Indians (MI) defeated Gujarat Titans (GT) by 27 runs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on May 12 and moved to the 3rd spot in the IPL points table.
MI was asked to bat first by GT captain Hardik Pandya who had won the toss. Openers Ishan Kishan (31 off 20 balls) and skipper Rohit Sharma (29 off 18 balls) provided a brisk start with a quick 61-run opening stand.
However, Rashid Khan (4/30) removed the openers and Nehal Wadhera (15) to reduce MI to 88/3.
Then, Suryakumar Yadav first added a 65-run stand for the fourth wicket with Vishnu Vinod (30 off 20 balls). And then decimated the GT bowling attack, scoring his maiden IPL century, a knock of 103* in 49 balls with 11 fours and six sixes, taking MI to 218/5 in 20 overs.
In response, MI bowlers, especially Akash Madhwal (3/31) and Piyush Chawla (2/36) reduced the GT to 103/8 at one time.
But then, Rashid Khan slammed 79* in just 32 balls, consisting of three fours and 10 sixes. He put on an 88-run unbeaten stand for the ninth wicket with Alzarri Joseph (7*) to take GT to 191/8 in their 20 overs. But MI won the match by 27 runs.
After the match, the official Twitter handle of IPL shared a video of a fun chat session between Surya and Akash Madhwal wherein the former shared his mantra after smashing his maiden IPL ton.
He hit a six off the last ball of the MI innings to complete his maiden IPL century. Speaking about the last ball six, Yadav said that he keeps practicing the same shots and was delighted to be able to pull it off.
Akash also quizzed Suryakumar about how he felt after getting his first-ever century in IPL, Surya replied that he was delighted to have his family in the stands, particularly his wife Devisha Shetty who had missed SKY’s previous 3 centuries at the international level.
“I felt good to see my family, most importantly to see Devisha seated there, she had missed my 3 international hundreds, she wasn’t there to attend those games. Felt happy, now people won’t be able to say that she came and that’s why I couldn’t score a century," said Surya.
Surya was seen wishing Akash the best for his future and he also gave the youngster a mantra saying, “Enjoy the night, forget it tomorrow," to keep the bowler humble.
