“Even in practice matches, he pulls off these kinds of shots out of nowhere” - Akash Madhwal in awe of Suryakumar Yadav

Mumbai Indians (MI) pacer Akash Madhwal has stated that bowling to Suryakumar Yadav is extremely difficult even in the nets. He added that the batter brings out his 360-degree strokes during practice as well.

Suryakumar was Player of the Match for his scintillating 103* off 49 balls as MI beat Gujarat Titans (GT) by 27 runs in match number 57 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Friday, May 12.

Reflecting on the MI batter’s maiden IPL hundred in a post-match press conference, Madhwal hailed him and commented:

“Bowling to him is very difficult. I have bowled to pretty good batters but Suryakumar Yadav happens to be someone extraordinary. The shots he practices in the nets come off as it is when he plays them on the field. So it is very difficult to bowl to him.

“Even in the practice matches, he pulls off these kinds of shots out of nowhere. The best thing about these shots as a bowler during practice matches is that they seem gorgeous. Haven’t seen anyone bat like him yet.”

Suryakumar hammered 11 fours and six sixes in his splendid knock, finishing with a strike rate of 210.20. Thanks to his exploits, Mumbai Indians amassed 218/5 after being asked to bat first.

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“We bowled with the intention of choking them for runs at the start” - Akash Madhwal

While Suryakumar starred with the bat, Madhwal was the standout performer on the bowling front for Mumbai. Coming in as the ‘Impact Player’, he registered figures of 3/31 in three overs as Gujarat Titans lost half their side for 55 in the chase.

Speaking about his bowling performance, the 29-year-old said that their plan was to keep things extremely tight at the start. He elaborated:

“There was plenty of dew and it was especially difficult to bowl slower balls. Our plan was pretty simple against Titans. We bowled with the intention of choking them for runs at the start. So I stuck to my strength, which is bowling hard lengths throughout my spell of four overs.”

He added that while he is primarily looked upon as a death-overs specialist, for Friday’s match he was picked as a new-ball bowler. Madhwal said:

“My role before this match was to bowl the end overs but Rohit [Sharma] bhaiya informed me a day before the match that I will be bowling in the powerplay overs after seeing me in the nets. He asked me to be ready and when the opportunity arrived, thankfully, I was ready to grab it.”

Mumbai’s bowlers reduced Gujarat to 103/8 by the 14th over. However, a brilliant knock by Rashid Khan (79* off 32) saw the chasing side finish on 191/8.