Suryakumar shows versatility to revive Mumbai’s IPL campaign
Suryakumar Yadav has forged a reputation as a six-hitting machine but on Tuesday the Mumbai Indians batting linchpin proved he is no one-trick pony by engineering his team’s campaign-reviving win against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The world’s top-ranked Twenty20 batter belted 83 off 35 balls to help Mumbai chase down a 200-run target and jump to third from eighth place in the Indian Premier League (IPL) table.
Suryakumar smashed six sixes in his fourth half-century in his last six IPL innings but equally importantly he was also adept at finding the gaps, drilling seven boundaries to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
The 32-year-old said he had to adjust his approach as Bangalore took pace off the ball to make six-hitting difficult.
“They came up with a plan here,” said Suryakumar, who formed a 140-run partnership with Nehal Wadhera (52 not out).
“They knew they had to bowl slow, make me hit towards the bigger boundary and not give me pace.
“I spoke to Nehal and we thought, ‘let them come up with a plan’.
“If they are bowling slow, let’s try to hit the ball in the gap and run hard.
“If we get boundary (fine), otherwise, we were anyway getting twos and singles.”
He said he had been practising for such situations.
“Your practice has to be the same as what you want to do in the matches,” he said.
“I do the proper practice. We have open net sessions and I keep the fielders on and come out of my comfort zone ... “I know my game, I know where my runs are and I don’t do anything different.”
Five-time winners Mumbai host defending champions Gujarat Titans in their next match on Tuesday.