India captain Suryakumar Yadav was up to the challenge in the first match of the 10 th edition of the T20 world cup, as he gave a match winning performance against the USA in the Wankhede stadium on Saturday. There had been extensive anticipation of a high scoring contest and fans were shouting even before the first ball was rolled out, 300. With the USA skipper Monank Patel winning the toss and opting to play in the field, the Wankhede audience was looking forward to see the openers Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan play like fireworks.
But an early change in mood occurred towards the beginning of the innings. In the second over, Ali Khan turned Abhishek Sharma away by means of a duck and this sparked off a collapse that made India lose wickets at intervals. The USA bowlers had screwed the screws and by the 13th over the defending champions were not doing so well at 77/6 which was nowhere near the mammoth number many had projected.
Suryakumar stood unfazed at the crease in the middle of the crisis. Over the drinks break, head coach Gautam Gambhir wandered out to the middle accompanied by Sanju Samson and had a relatively short and effective talk with the Indian captain. The exchange was recorded on cameras and Suryakumar made it known later that the advice given by Gambhir was vital in his strategy.
The slogan was nothing but keep on hitting until it ends. Following that advice, Suryakumar led the batting, combining calmness with restrained violence. He completed without strike on 84 out of 49 balls, which took India to a competitive 161/9 in 20 overs. This proved to be just enough as India won the match by 29 runs.
Looking back on the innings, Suryakumar expressed the opinion that there was always a greater propensity to have a 140-run total than a 180-190 one, which Gambhir agreed with in the interval. The skipper used his strategy with perfection by drawing upon his extensive knowledge of the wickets in Mumbai.
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