Picture Credit : BCCI

Picture Credit : BCCI

‘The wicket is turning and playing up some tricks, can you step in?’ Some early wickets have fallen and the runs are hard to come by, can you change the course of the game!’ And when not this, then the following- “India are in a bit of a spot (of bother)! Can you work up something, please!?” In each of these sentences, you can sense borderline panic brewing and tension mounting. But then what to do as opponents of India when the respondent is someone who sports a gum chewing smile and wears cool weathers over his shoulders? Pretty much all the time! If the examination challenging Team India poses hard questions, particularly speaking in the T20I format, then Suryakumar Yadav seems to be that student who tends to excel, particularly when questions appear out of the syllabus. Which is what happened to India when the Americans punctured our top and middle order in the World Cup opener.

There was pressure. And endless swathes of it. But one man didn’t relent. The name is Sky.

In the great game of cricket, where uncertainties are about as certain as rains during monsoons, Suryakumar Yadav doesn’t get perturbed.

Really doesn’t.

Very seldom do runs stop coming from his usually blazing bat even during critical junctures when there seems to be a stoppage at run scoring.

Having said that, make no mistake for on the opening day game night at the famed Wankhede when India faced the USA bowlers, there was pressure. More pressure even before Suryakumar Yadav stepped in.

The top order had collapsed and there weren’t even 25 runs posted on the board.

That’s with the co hosts of this World Cup batting first. The dasher in Abhishek Sharma blunted by a methodical bowling attack. The in form dasher Ishan Kishan sent back quite early. Very early. And to make matters worse- even the usually consistent Tilak Verma who hits and pierces the gaps without much ado couldn’t do much to help.

This wasn’t a batting performance. On the contrary, it was anything but. The innings was going nowhere just when the captain Suryakumar Yadav stepped in. Stepped in with usual poise, much gusto as if ready to send back the marauding troops back to their hut.

And from 77 to 6 the team went to 95 for 6 with another 5 to play.

Axar Patel seemed a bystander. Taking his time to settle. Perhaps still feeling the nerves. Or maybe not so much for at the other end was the reliable captain, a man who has, forget not, 4 T20I centuries to his name.

In such time Suryakumar Yadav was in the healthy 30s. He was set. Keen. Eager. Ready to motor along for a country whose heart beats for the game and one for whom Cricket is another adjective of life.

While Axar’s deft touches and almost mute nudges to the third man area kept the repairing duo busy out in the middle, Surya was seen busy in gap finding between mid off and cover and the point region.

No nerves were lost

Not anymore. That harrowing time when the American spinners were seen hovering around the Indian batters was gong. Long gone. Van Schwalkvyk was done haunting the top and middle order. The mood had shifted from damage repair to cruise control.

Suryakumar Yadav was busy. He may want to thank his stars though for Van Schwalkwyk had dropped a sitter off his own bowling earlier on during Sky’s arrival in the middle.

And then what did we see?

Perhaps on the penultimate delivery of the 16th over- Suryakumar Yadav playing a shot of the ages.

One that would have drawn immense appreciation from Sir Viv and perhaps even AB.

Dragging a medium pacer pitched outside off to beyond the deep mid wicket boundary, Sky combined a sense of grit with elegance to execute a stroke that can’t be taught but can only be awed about.

Eye popping stuff.

Box office.

I run out of adjectives. And could go on and on. It was so good.

And then, on the very next delivery, he’d power a six in an almost wristy MS Dhoni-esque fashion taking his own score to 46.

But there was context for his scoring. And method to madness.

He didn’t just score 46 off 33 by that time. He scored 46 of India’s 116 with just a little more than 3 overs to score off from. And then, he kept batting. And batting and batting. Even as more wickets fell, such as that of Axar Patel who fell for a brief, of also effective, 14, but one man stayed put.

At one time you simply wondered how on earth did this man bring up a fifty off just 36 deliveries when the rest of his teammates were struggling to middle the ball?

But then when he gets going, you dont idle time in attempting to decide his game play or technique.

Somethings in life are merely meant to be enjoyed; not analysed.

What a timely knock, you ought to say. 

And once again, not for the self but for the team’s cause.

In his valiant 83 off 48, Suryakumar Yadav salvaged India’s pride and in deed became the pride of the entire batting order.