Surya Kumar Yadav shows no limits against the Sunrisers Hyderabad

Entering the arena at 31 for 3, fighting cramps in the intense heat, Suryakumar displayed a masterclass in strategic devastation

(Football news) It’s possible that Suryakumar Yadav is the most ridiculous figure in Indian cricket. He is always grinning, laughs around before games, and cracks jokes in press conferences. If you browse through his Instagram stories on a day when there isn’t a match, you can also see him enjoying some old-fashioned Hindi comedy in his hotel room.

It makes sense why he makes light of bowling attacks in all environments and locales. What he does and how he does it continue to mystify viewers, and this feeling was heightened on Monday when he scored his sixth T20 century, for Mumbai Indians against Sunrisers Hyderabad, and his second in the IPL. The bewilderment that his batting generates doesn’t come from the numbers, which are hard to match anyway, but from the style of his shot-making, and this was especially true on Monday.

It was far from a flat track at the Wankhede Stadium. Suryakumar had to face a potent pace attack that was loving the movement on offer. And he had not even gotten off the mark when Mumbai slipped to 31 for 3 in the fifth over.

That third wicket could have been of Suryakumar off any of the three deliveries before Naman Dhir’s dismissal. The ball was seaming and swinging, and Pat Cummins had his tail up having just dismissed Rohit Sharma.

The first ball Suryakumar faced betrayed him like a waiter you think is bringing your plate to your table but turns to another just before reaching you. The second ball also pitched in the channel and straightened to beat the outside edge. The third wasn’t very different and Suryakumar tried to punch it away, but missed again.

Sometimes it takes just one shot to get you going, even if it’s off the edge. When Suryakumar got on strike in Cummins’ next over, he went for a flick off his pads, but the ball flew almost off the back of his bat for a six over the deep third boundary.

And if it’s not one shot that gets you going, it’s one over. Even though the powerplay was done, Suryakumar may have seen Marco Jansen, the least experienced of the SRH quicks, running in, and thought to himself, “this is the over.” There was a wide gap between mid-on and deep midwicket and Suryakumar was happy to clip the ball on his pads to the vacant boundary.

When Jansen went full next, he went too full, and with mid-on in the circle, Suryakumar drilled him back along the carpet for another four. What follows a full delivery? Jansen banged one in short next, angling into the stumps, and even before the ball could reach Suryakumar, he had shuffled to off for one of his trademark pick-up shots over fine leg. When he got the strike back for the last ball, Jansen gifted him a dolly on the pads and Suryakumar flicked it for six to make it a 22-run over of which he had smashed 21.

Having waltzed from 11 off nine to 32 off 14, Suryakumar was in his zone. When Cummins returned and hammered away in the corridor outside off, Suryakumar unflinchingly and patiently offered the straight bat. He scored only one run off five balls in that 10th over, but it was a mini-victory because SRH were desperate for his wicket.

“I feel it was the need of the hour today,” he explained at the presentation. “When I went in to bat, three wickets were down and it had to be someone to play till the end and that’s what I did. I knew as the dew was heavy and as soon as the seam goes off, it will be easy for a batter to play those shots.

“The traditional shots are from the Mumbai school of arts,” he said of his straight-bat shots. “I’ve played a lot of first-class cricket for Mumbai and a lot of games at Wankhede. I know when the ball is seaming, what’s the right option at that time, that’s what I tried to do today. When the ball stopped seaming, I played all my shots which I practise in the nets.”

Soon, though, Suryakumar began to hobble. It could have been cramps, because it was barely below 30 degrees Celsius in Mumbai despite being past 10pm and he was playing his first proper tournament after coming back from groin surgery, which had kept him out of action since December 14, 2023, the day of his last T20 hundred.

It’s possible that Suryakumar felt he would have to go off the field soon, and seeing the equation at 69 off 48, and the ball in Jansen’s hand again, he upped the gears once more. Having brought up his fifty off 30 balls, he smacked the left-arm quick for back-to-back fours again, and when Cummins tried to stem the flow of runs by bringing on Shahbaz Ahmed, a left-arm spinner (the one match-up that’s kept him relatively quiet in recent years), Suryakumar dispatched him for boundaries with two good-looking sweeps.

Now that the ball was drenched in dew, controlling it was just as difficult as stopping Suryakumar. Cummins attempted to use the slow cutters in the 17th over, which had been effective for him against the Rajasthan Royals, but Suryakumar hit two of them to the empty midwicket boundary. Suryakumar reached 96 when Cummins dispatched a long ball to deep midwicket and hit another short ball, which he pummelled over square leg for six.

He completed his century with his sixth six in the next over, and that shot also took Mumbai past their target. He took his sweat-soaked helmet off and, as handshakes were exchanged next to the pitch, he went and stood alone at one end of the 22 yards and looked down at the track, as if to say, “you were a little tricky today, but I got you in the end.”

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