IND vs SA 2022: Suryakumar Yadav reflects on his whirlwind knock
Surya Kumar Yadav in action during 2nd T20I (PC: Twitter)
Suryakumar Yadav expressed his delight to be playing positive cricket and contributing to the team's win in the second game of the three-match T20I series against South Africa at Guwahati.
Batting first, India were off to a flyer with the opening pair Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul going all guns blazing on a flat surface. It was Keshav Maharaj who broke their 96-run stand by dismissing Sharma (43) and soon got rid of Rahul (57) as well.
Then, it was another threatening pair Surya and Virat Kohli, who kept the team's momentum with their consistent boundaries. However, SKY emerged to be the finest among the two with his extravagant shots and insane hitting, which saw him complete his fifty off 18 balls.
The duo added a 102-run stand in 40 balls before Surya was involved in an unfortunate run-out. He slammed 61 off 22 balls and also became the fastest player to reach 1000 T20I runs.
Kohli remained unbeaten on 49, while Dinesh Karthik provided a finishing touch with 17 off 7 to help India post 237 on the board.
In response to the chase, South Africa could not get off to a good start, with the dismissals of Temba Bavuma and Rilee Rossouw. It was a superb effort from Quinton de Kock (69* off 48) and David Miller (106* off 47 balls), but Proteas fell short by 16 runs.
In this regard, SKY reckoned that he wanted to maintain the tempo set by the openers with his natural intent, and was relieved of it paying off well. Furthermore, the 32-year-old lauded Miller and Quinton for their strong fightback.
"We were batting first, so it was very clear that I had to keep the tempo that was set by Rahul and Rohit and I just went and enjoyed myself.
"I practice these shots. See, once we are batting, we need to put as many as possible. So, for that, we need to attack. That's the strategy. It came good. "Read more: Surya Kumar Yadav becomes fastest to 1000 T20I runs amidst another milestone
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