Suryakumar Yadav has been consistency personified this season.
| Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI
Despite having emerged as a format tailormade for batters, T20 cricket is a challenging one for the willow-wielders to be consistent in scoring runs at a healthy strike rate. Suryakumar Yadav – just like his 360 degree batting – has proven to be an exception.
The India T20I captain on Wednesday continued his silken touch with the willow – and displayed his game awareness in abundance – to help Mumbai Indians seal the final playoff berth in IPL 2025 with a match-winning performance against Delhi Capitals.
Suryakumar had overtaken Robin Uthappa’s record of 10 consecutive 25-plus scores in the IPL – the most by a batter before the IPL was briefly suspended. On Wednesday, on a sticky Wankhede Stadium pitch, Suryakumar equalled Temba Bavuma’s record of 13 25-plus scores in all T20s.
But even after setting the record, Suryakumar knew his job was far from being done. At the end of 18 overs, he was batting on 45 off 35 balls and the scoreboard read 132 for five. That’s when he was constantly in Naman Dhir’s ears – as the latter admitted in the media briefing – with the message “play proper cricketing shots”.
Suryakumar himself practised what he preached to take the game away from Capitals in quick time. The duo added 48 off the last two overs and Suryakumar smashed 28 off eight balls during this period to virtually seal the fate of the game.
“It’s been 13 games now. My wife told me a sweet story. She said, ‘you have got all the awards except Player-of-the-Match. So this award is really special today. From the team’s point of view, this knock was important. Also this trophy is for her,” he said after winning the honour.
Mumbai Indians will be hoping that the Suryakumar juggernaut will roll on the playoffs too.
Published – May 22, 2025 05:57 pm IST