In the absence of regular number 3 batsman Manish Pandey, Kolkata Knight Riders’ Suryakumar Yadav did a fantastic job to guide his team through to victory against the Rising Pune Supergiants. Yadav was promoted to number 3, and found himself in the middle; on the second ball of the innings itself after Robin Uthappa was dismissed on the very first ball.
Yadav began aggressively and provided the Knight Riders with a blistering start. By the end of the powerplay, the Knight Riders were playing with a run rate of almost 10. Yadav then played second fiddle to Yusuf Pathan and in the due process, registered his first half-century for the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Post the game, Yadav admitted that he was a tad disappointed as he couldn’t finish the game for his side. Yadav spoke about his rapport with Yusuf Pathan and said, “We have been talking a lot since the last three years because he has won a lot of games for KKR.” “So I have seen him play in IPL and seen him practice in the nets. After every nets session, we have a talk on how to build an innings and how to finish games. I was sad that I didn’t finish the game today, but am happy that my runs came for a winning cause.”
Acknowledging that he got an ideal opportunity to prove himself at number 3, Yadav said, “Captain had told me that I would be batting at No 3 as Manish Pandey was not fit.” “It was a good opportunity for me. I had been preparing for this for the last two days, working specifically on how I would build my innings. “At the back of my mind, I was also aware of the fact that given the nature of the wicket, scoring runs later on in the innings would be difficult. So my strokes were in front of the wicket. I’ve been playing those since the Ranji Trophy and I carried the same into this match.”
“When I got out, it was a tense situation. When we needed five runs off four balls and Umesh came on strike, I knew that if the ball was bowled in his range, it would go out of the park, not for one or two runs. The match would get over in a ball! Have seen him do this in practice matches. That’s why I knew he could do it,” Yadav concluded.