MI vs RCB: What Experts said as ignored Suryakumar Yadav produces masterclass

Despite Suryakumar Yadav not being selected in team India for the tour Down Under, which would begin later this year, he kept on giving scintillating performances, which he has been doing since the start of this season’ IPL.

His undefeated 79 of 43 balls led Mumbai to a five-wicket win over Virat Kohli’s RCB at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. It also makes them reach 16 points, and though statistically, they are still not qualified, realistically they have almost made it to the Playoffs, with two more games in hand. Apart from SKY, as he is known, Mumbai blowers especially Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult also played crucial roles in the team’s victory.  

Captains’ Viewpoints                    

Kieron Pollard, who has been captaining Mumbai in the absence of Rohit Sharma, lauded the efforts of his bowlers for pulling things back after the RCB got off to a blistering start. “I try to analyze,” he said about the plans that were made inside the field after the first Timeout.  “I got the wicket of ABD. We can't just depend on Bumrah. But we would want other guys to step up as it is a team game,” Pollard said further.  

Praising Suryakumar for playing the brilliant knock in which he made such a huge amount of runs and that too at a strike rate which could be best called profound. “We lost a few wickets but Surya took us home. Imagine, someone, coming in at that number and batting at that strike rate despite a wicket going down. The most he can do is continue performing for us,” Pollard said.

Saying that consistency is the key to achieving great things in life, Pollard said, “As an individual, if you continue to be consistent, the rewards will come. I have always done what the team wants me to do. If the team performs well, I am happy.”

Virat Kohli, the losing captain wasn’t really happy with the way the batting of RCB faltered in the death overs. “It was a strange phase of batting (the last five overs of the RCB innings),” he said.  He further praised the Mumbai bowlers for bowling in the right areas. “Everything went to the fielders and these kinds of things happen. They bowled in good areas in the last 5 overs and stopped us 20 runs short,” said Kohli.

Dale Steyn played despite having been able to dish out any better performances, while Isuru Udana, who performed relatively well, has suddenly been out of action by the team. Explaining this the 31-year-old said, “We were in the game until the 17th over and that was a decent effort by our bowlers. It's basically up to the gut of the captain and the conditions, we thought Dale and Morris for the initial swing and Washy in the powerplay. We needed a few wickets there, but their batsmen did a good job.”

Talking about the uncertainty on which teams would qualify for the Playoffs and the rise of the teams placed in the bottom half of the points table the Delhi born said, “This is always going to happen - some teams peak early and some do better later. As we can see, the teams in the lower half are turning out some really good performances now.”

Finally, the Indian captain concluded by saying, “When it's a top-two clash, it will always be intense and in a competition like the IPL, you can't expect any team to back down and be blown away.”

Expert Opinion

Experts today talked mainly about how Suryakumar Yadav despite performing well in the IPL was not considered for the National team.

Boria Majumdar, a senior cricket analyst quoted the tweet of Indian coach Ravi Shastri in which he praised the Mumbai batsman and asked him to keep working hard. Quoting the tweet, Boria, wanted to know if there was any hidden message as to why Surya might not have been selected in the team.

On the other hand, Harsha Bhogle, the ace cricket commentator and expert also praised Surya saying that he was playing the best cricket of his life and has been a treat to watch. 

English analyst Freddie Wilde, who deals in things related to cricket data said that the range of Surya's shots in the game was the best he has had in this season of IPL, playing all-around the grounds. He also said that Surya's way of playing this year is reminiscent of KL Rahul's campaign of 2018. 

Gaurav Kalra spoke in favour of the Mumbai batsman arguing that if he could play well against a bowling lineup as strong and international in quality as RCB, he could play anywhere, thereby trying to suggest that him not getting selected in the team was unfair. 

The plan is now simple for RCB, win both their games or at least one, and try and get into the Playoffs as the heat for the spots is increasing with each passing day.

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