Ex-Pakistani cricketers Misbah Ul Haq and Moin Khan praised India’s Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav for their superlative batting in the recent India vs. England ICC World Cup 2023 match in Lucknow on Sunday.
India was asked to bat first by Jos Buttler on a tricky pitch and they lost early wickets of Shubman Gill (9), Virat Kohli (0) and Shreyas Iyer (4). But Rohit Sharma (87) then added 91 runs for the fifth wicket with KL Rahul (39) to give India a good platform to launch.
Suryakumar Yadav (49) played against his natural urges to hit big shots and his knock, along with contribution from the tail, took India to 229/9 in 50 overs.
"Extraordinary batting on this kind of pitch. Especially, when wickets are falling on the other side, it's very difficult to show such intent and put bowlers under pressure. No doubt, they got a decent start but after that they lost three quick wickets. And it was three big wickets for them. The way he played after losing the wicket of Virat Kohli. To play as an anchor as well to put pressure on bowlers and did not allow the match to go out of hands. He took the scoring rate from around 4 to above it by 30 overs or so," Misbah Ul Haq said on ASports show.
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The former Pakistan coach Misbah also lauded the Indian batting line-up for respecting the conditions.
"The best part of the Indian batting line-up is knowing the situation and conditions of the game and respecting it, while preparing to push forward against the opposition at the right time. That was I think was the quality of this innings," Misbah said.
On the other hand, Pakistan 1992 World Cup winner Moin Khan was impressed with the way Suryakumar played his innings against England.
"It clearly shows how there is healthy competition within the Indian team. It is reflective of that here. Every player is playing to cement their place in the starting XI, and playing to contribute something to take the team towards World Cup glory. I think Suryakumar is one of those players, who if they remain in the crease you can't stop their runs," Moin said.
"If we compare batters from both the sides, he is the only one who scored with a strike rate above 100. That's why it is very important for teams to dismiss such players early, because as long as they are there in the middle they will keep scoring the runs. He has this mindset to score runs from every delivery, play shots and put pressure on the bowlers. He always hits sixes and is known as a 360 degree batter," Moin said praising Surya's abilities.
In reply, England collapsed to 129 runs as Mohammad Shami (4/22) and Jasprit Bumrah (3/32) routed the opposition. India won by 100 runs and went to top of the CWC 2023 points table with 12 points.
