Suryakumar Yadav was the saving grace for India as they were outplayed in all departments by South Africa in their most recent match of the T20 World Cup 2022. The Men in Blue batting failed against the fiery Proteas pacers as they were restricted to 133/9 in 20 overs after Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bat first.
Suryakumar Yadav scored a brilliant 68 of 40 balls with 3 sixes and 5 fours to his name with Rohit Sharma’s 15 being the next-best score. Lungi Ngidi picked 4/29, while Wayne Parnell took 3/15.
Indian bowlers tried their best to contain the Proteas' batting, but half-centuries from Aiden Markram and David Miller gave them a 5-wicket win as they topped the Group 2 points table.
Lauding Suryakumar Yadav after the match, Gautam Gambhir said on Star Sports that he hadn’t seen a better T20 innings by an Indian batter than this one.
“This is probably the best T20 innings by an Indian. The wickets had fallen, and on this pitch to do this is something,” Gautam Gambhir said on Star Sports.
The batter is going through an incredible run of form this year. In the 2022 calendar year, Suryakumar scored 935 runs in 26 matches across 26 innings at a brilliant average of 42.50. He has scored a century and eight half-centuries this year, with the best score of 117, which came against England. He is also the highest run-scorer in the format this year.
However, the Indian cricket fans on social media took offense to Gambhir’s claim that Suryakumar Yadav’s knock was the best by an Indian in T20s, reminding him of Virat Kohli’s innings against Pakistan in MCG in the first match of the tournament, where he single-handedly won the match for India, scoring 82*.
Here are some reactions from the fans slamming Gambhir:
