When Mumbai Indians retained Suryakumar Yadav ahead of Ishan Kishan in late 2021, it took quite a few by surprise, especially given the kind of impact the southpaw had in the shortest format that year. The questions only grew louder when the franchise spent Rs 15 crore on Kishan. But the most successful franchise in the league knew what they were doing.
If Kishan is among the most destructive openers going around in T20s, there were very few who offered the adaptability of Suryakumar — maneuver the field and hit spinners across the park at will and accelerate at a strike rate of 175.49 in the last four overs. Much like Kishan, Suryakumar was also at the peak of his prowess in international cricket before an unfortunate injury ruled him out of the Sri Lanka series and the start of the IPL.
Coming into the game against Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai had lost their first two, but their biggest boost was the availability of Suryakumar to counter the threat posed by Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy. But Umesh Yadav came out of the syllabus, reducing them to 45 for two in eight overs. In his first three, Umesh gave just 12 runs and removed the dangerous Rohit Sharma.
When Suryakumar walked into bat, Narine and Chakravarthy were operating from either end. Over the next 18 balls, Mumbai added just nine runs as Suryakumar watched Kishan fall to Cummins. They were in a spot of bother, stuttering at 55 for three after 11 overs. The middle-order bat, along with Tilak Varma, took his time, deciding to take the game deep.
They played out one more over of Chakravarthy and when Umesh was brought back for his last over, Suryakumar was batting at nine from 16. It was time to put his foot down and up the ante. Umesh gifted a slower ball and he promptly swatted it to the deep-midwicket boundary.
The next one, a short delivery, was sliced over third-man for a six. It was the first show of intent. But the SKY special was yet to come.
With Varma joining the party, the duo took on Rasikh Salam and Chakravarthy, adding 44 runs between overs 13 and 17. Mumbai were still operating at a run-rate of 6.76 and needed a final push. Suryakumar had progressed to 36 off 29, but this time he was up against Narine, who had conceded just 13 runs in three overs.
The right-hander welcomed Narine with a down-on-one-knee tonk over cow corner for a massive six. A couple of balls later, he rocked back to cut the spinner between gully and deep-point for a four.
If the sweep off Rasikh wasn’t enough, he saved the best against Andre Russell. A quick short-of-length delivery that was too close to cut, but Suryakumar went down a bit, opened the face of the bat and sliced it over third-man to bring up his fifty in just 36 balls.
The SKY everyone knew was there. It was like the injury had no impact on him. Although he got out the next over, Pollard’s 5-ball 22 took Mumbai to 161 for four.
It’s not often an athlete comes up and displays their mastery every time they take the field. Once again, Suryakumar showed that on Wednesday, just like he has time and again whether it's for Mumbai or India in the last four years.