Suryakumar Yadav lightened up the Bay Oval at Mount Maunganui in the second T20Is between New Zealand and India with a scintillating unbeaten century as India registered an emphatic 65-run win in the second T20I of the three-match T20Is series.
The first T20I was rained out at Wellington and here Kane Williamson won the toss and chose to bowl first. India managed 191/6 in 20 overs with Ishan Kishan making 36 runs and was the second-highest run-scorer.
However, the innings belonged to Suryakumar Yadav, who smoked 111* in 51 balls with 11 fours and 7 towering sixes in a knock to be remembered for a long time. He is having an amazing year in the format in 2022.
The right-hander has scored 1151 runs in 30 matches in T20Is in 2022. He has hit 2 centuries and 9 fifties at a strike rate of 188.37 and an average of 47.95. He has hit 105 fours and 67 sixes thus far in T20Is in 2022.
After the knock, Suryakumar was invited by the broadcasters, Prime Video, to talk about his innings.
He said: “In T20, a hundred is always special but at the same time, it was really important for me to bat till the very end. Hardik was telling me to bat till the 18th or 19th over, and get to a score of 185 or so. After the end of the 16th over, we had a chat about taking it deep. It was important to maximise the last few overs. Have been doing the same things over and over again, in the nets and it's just coming off for me.”
During the discussion, Rishabh Pant interrupted Surya’s interview and hugged him from behind saying: “This is unbelievable innings”.
Check it out here:
In reply, Kane Williamson made 61 and Devon Conway made 25 runs as New Zealand couldn’t keep up with the required run rate. For India, Siraj with 2/24, and Chahal with 2/26 were the standout bowlers. And Deepak Hooda hastened the end of Kiwi innings, picking three wickets in the 19th over as he ended with 4/10 in 2.5 overs.
India won the second T20I by 65 runs and took a 1-0 lead in the series with the third and final match to be played on Tuesday in Napier.
