Former New Zealand batter Ross Taylor has rated Suryakumar Yadav’s hundred in the second T20I against the Kiwis at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui on Sunday as the best he has ever seen in the country. SKY scored a stupendous knock of unbeaten 111 runs off just 51 balls as he played a magnum opus innings.
The right-hander completed his fifty off 32 balls but then changed gears like a racing car. His next fifty came off just 17 balls as he took the New Zealand bowlers to the cleaners. It wasn’t the easiest of pitches as the other Indian batters scored their runs at run-a-ball but Yadav scored at 217.65.
This was Yadav’s second T20I century and he once again played the field with guile. The 32-year-old smashed 11 fours and seven sixes in his blistering knock as he showed no respite for the Kiwis bowlers and helped the team in posting 191 runs on the board.
Taylor told ESPNCricinfo: “It was an unbelievable innings. The way he started, the way he hits gaps; I have seen a lot of good innings in New Zealand by McCullum, Guptill, and Munro, but that would have to be up there with the best T20 hundred I have seen on these shores in the history of the game.”
SKY is known to back his strengths and once again played some unbelievable shots in his knock. Yadav got a lot of runs while playing the inside-out shot over the cover fielder against the New Zealand spinners.
“He takes calculated risks; the inside-out shot over cover against spinners is such a low-risk shot. I think he had a little bit of luck when he tried to ramp Ferguson, but other than that, I don’t think he really gave him a chance. New Zealand brought up the fielders and he backed himself to hit over them.”
He added: “He doesn’t try and over-hit the ball, try and muscle it over there; there’s still a lot of skill and he played really good cricketing shots.”
SKY has been batting in a different zone altogether and he is making batsmanship look ridiculously easy. Yadav will want to hold on to his sublime form in the upcoming matches.
India will take on New Zealand on Tuesday in Napier.
