Guyana: With India's decisive seven-wicket victory over the West Indies on Tuesday in Guyana, the explosive batsman Suryakumar Yadav joined a select group of players with 100 sixes in men's T20I cricket, helping India stay alive in their ongoing series against the Caribbean team.
Suryakumar became just the third man from India, behind star duo Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, to hit a century of sixes in the game's shortest format with a brilliant knock of 83 that featured four sixes. This was in the third T20I match of the series against the West Indies.
With 182 total sixes, Rohit leads the world. Kohli (117) and Suryakumar (101) are chasing their seasoned captain and are among the 14 men's international cricket players to surpass the magical three-figure mark.
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Suryakumar played admirably against the West Indies, combining with young gun Tilak Varma (49*) to help India successfully chase down the West Indies' modest score of 159/5 with more than two overs remaining and just three wickets lost.
With the West Indies leading 2-1 and the remaining two games scheduled to take place in Florida on Saturday and Sunday, the five-match series is now in a good position thanks to India's victory.
After the West Indies won the toss and decided to bat, the spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav (3/28) and Axar Patel (1/24) applied the pressure to lower the total for the hosts to a pitiful score.
Suryakumar terrorized the opposition bowlers with the clean hitting for which he has recently become renowned, unfazed by the early loss of openers Shubman Gill (6) and Yashavi Jaiswal (1).
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When Suryakumar was out in the 13th over, India was in a commanding position to easily win under the watchful eyes of captain Hardik Pandya (20*) and Varma. A total of 64 of Suryakumar's 83 runs came through boundaries.
In only his third international appearance, Varma narrowly missed a second consecutive half-century, but Suryakumar was impressed by the left-hander's maturity and thinks the 20-year-old has a promising future in the sport.
"I feel for his age, he's showing amazing maturity," Suryakumar said of Varma said post-match.
"He knows his game very well what he wants to do when he comes into bat and today he was very clear what he wanted to do and he's mentally very strong.
"That's the most important thing, what you need when you come into Indian dressing room and you play at this level."
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