SKY climbs back to his show-stopping best at the Wankhede

At the Wankhede on Sunday night, the finish came with a flourish. With M.S. Dhoni, the man who immortalised picture-perfect climaxes at this venue with that shot over long-on on the night of the 2011 ODI World Cup final, stationed behind the stumps, Suryakumar Yadav dispatched Matheesha Pathirana for two consecutive sixes to complete a nine-wicket trouncing of Chennai Super Kings inside 16 overs.

Pathirana, armed with searing pace and a slingy action, had erred a trifle with his execution, dishing out deliveries that were a few inches short of the blockhole. It was enough for the 34-year-old, standing deep in his crease with his front leg out of the way, to exercise a flamboyant swing of the bat and clear the extra-cover and long-off boundaries with a touch of trademark swagger.

He finished unbeaten on 68 off 30 deliveries, having forged an 114-run unbroken partnership with Rohit Sharma (76 n.o., 45b, 4×4, 6×6) to deliver a third victory on the trot for Mumbai Indians. For Rohit to register a significant score after accruing merely 82 runs in his first six outings is understandably headline-grabbing — there’s also the selection of India’s squad for the Test tour of England looming — but if MI is to build on this run and stake a claim for the playoffs, it is arguably Suryakumar returning to his vintage best that is even more substantial.

To say that Suryakumar, who has been retained in Grade-B of BCCI’s annual player contracts for 2024-25, wasn’t at the pinnacle of his powers in previous matches may seem strange when he is third on the list of highest run-getters this season — his 333 runs in eight games have come at an average of 55.5 and a strike rate of 162.43. But before his sublime display on Sunday, there is some validity to the claim that the man from Mumbai hadn’t set the stage on fire in this edition to the extent we have come to expect. It is a reflection of the stratospheric benchmark that SKY, a moniker given to him by current India head coach Gautam Gambhir during their erstwhile association with Kolkata Knight Riders, has set by virtue of his game-changing exploits over the past few years.

Slight dip

That he was operating a notch or two below his usual capacity was most evident in MI’s defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Wankhede a fortnight ago. Chasing 222 for victory on a batting belter, he was visibly out of sorts, repeatedly mistiming shots and offering chances that the RCB fielders spurned, and laboured his way to a 26-ball 28. The tame effort led to MI falling well behind the asking rate and eventually losing by 12 runs despite the pyrotechnics of Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya in the late overs.

In the months leading up to this IPL season, Suryakumar’s run-scoring graph for India witnessed a slight dip.

Since becoming captain of India’s T20I set-up in July 2024, following the exit of Rohit from the shortest format after the euphoric T20 World Cup triumph (Suryakumar, of course, played a big part with a spectacular catch in the final over of the final), the ace batter has just collected 258 runs in 14 innings at 18.42. Two ducks and five other scores in single digits have been added to his name in this period. Furthermore, his highest score is 21 in his last eight innings. In ICC’s T20I batting rankings, for what it’s worth, he has slipped from first to fifth.

Over the course of a long career, these troughs are bound to be encountered. But as was apparent in his knock against CSK, his supreme confidence and ultra-aggressive batting approach, which are among his biggest virtues, are very much intact.

Sure, Suryakumar walked into a pleasant situation on Sunday. By the time he took guard in the seventh over, Rohit and Ryan Rickelton had established a strong base with a quick-fire opening stand of 63 runs.

But having said that, Ravindra Jadeja had just struck in his opening over. Left-arm wrist-spinner Noor Ahmad, second on the wicket-taking charts this season with 12 scalps before the game, had all four overs up his sleeve. And R. Ashwin, back into the mix as an Impact Player on account of the assistance that MI spinners Mitchell Santner and Will Jacks drew during CSK’s innings, had delivered two frugal overs for eight runs. It was an opportunity, although remote at that, for CSK’s tweakers to show their pedigree in what has been a wretched campaign.

Attacking the spinners

But Suryakumar dashed the hopes of the men in yellow in the blink of an eye. Possessing a range of powerful sweep shots at his disposal, allowing him to access the region from fine leg to deep mid wicket as per his convenience, Suryakumar did not only limit the threat of the three spinners but went after each of them with gleeful relish. In contrast to Santner and Jacks, who gave away just 18 runs in four overs of orthodox spin, CSK’s slower bowlers were hammered for 89 runs in 10 overs.

During the post-match media formalities, coach Mahela Jayawardene said that Suryakumar was sent out at No. 3 given his proficiency against spin. To know how much he is rated on this front, it is pertinent to note that MI overlooked Tilak Varma for the job of not allowing the Super Kings spinners to settle into a stifling line and length. Never mind that Tilak had two things going in his favour: Jadeja, CSK’s most accurate spinner, would be turning the ball into him, and his presence would ensure the continuation of a left-right batting combination.

“We knew CSK was going to bowl a lot of spin. So we took the decision to send SKY,” Jayawardene stated.

Sweeping exhibition

With just a subtle change in his forward stride, he was able to manoeuvre the ball into the vacant pockets on the leg side with surgical precision.

There were sweeps over short fine leg. Sweeps in front of square. Sweeps all along the ground. Sweeps that took the aerial route and sailed beyond the boundary ropes. “There is nobody who plays the sweep shot better,” former Australia captain Michael Clarke, in a spontaneous reaction to the mayhem, exclaimed on commentary.

Beaming an impish smile and basking in the glow of victory, Suryakumar elaborated on his mastery of the shot. “I have grown up on the maidans of Mumbai.

When you play a lot of local cricket in Mumbai, you play a lot of cricket on red soil. You have got to come up with something like that. That’s where it has come from. When you come here, you know what to do,” he explained in a chat on television.

And when the bowler was willing to offer a hint of flight, like Jadeja did off the third ball of the ninth over, Suryakumar unleashed inside-out drives that took your breath away. It allowed Rohit, often the aggressor in a partnership, to take a small step back and stay put right through to the end.

“When SKY got into that groove, Ro probably took a back-seat, which was great,” Jayawardene enthused.

“We wanted the partnership to build. These two guys know each other pretty well. They handled the situation really well. I can’t pick one of them, because both were outstanding today.”

Before the contest, he had revealed in a chat with the broadcasters that he rewards himself with a cake baked by his wife whenever he does well with the bat. Having treated the Wankhede faithful to his show-stopping best, MI will hope he feasts on many more cakes for the remainder of this campaign.