India vs Australia: Suryakumar Yadav aces T20s again, less than a week after World Cup final struggle | Cricket News

Often during the 50-over World Cup, Suryakumar Yadav seemed in two minds about what he needed to do. The longer period to bat at his disposal may just have given him too many options with regard to how he had to play – like a miniature arte puzzled when given a bigger canvas to paint on.His designated role was not batting position-specific, but overs-remaining-specific. In the final too, Ravindra Jadeja was sent in before Surya, so that he only had limited overs to bat, leaving no scope for confusion. That he didn’t quite manage to do the job there has more to do with the planning and execution of the Australian team.
In the T20 format, with much less scope for ambivalence and the need to step on the accelerator at all times, he feels right at home. This comfort level came to the fore as he shepherded a chase of 209 just four days after the Ahmedabad disappointment, against the same team even with several different names. Even though India made heavy weather of a comfortable equation, Rinku Singh was at hand to ensure a two-wicket win, with a ball to spare, and a 1-0 lead in the five match T20I series.

Fantastic performance Team India in the T20 opener against Australia! Special mention to skipper @surya_14kumar for his outstanding innings, @ishankishan51 for the explosive start and @rinkusingh235 for playing a blinder at the back end! Congratulations to the Men in Blue on a… pic.twitter.com/QuMknUYRHF
— Jay Shah (@JayShah) November 23, 2023
It poured cold water over Josh Inglis’s whirlwind hundred (110 off 50 balls) and his 130-run second-wicket stand with Steve Smith, who seemed like a fish out of water throughout his 41-ball 52, that set the platform for the big Aussie total.
Surya and Kishan, as well as Rinku in the finisher’s role, had ensured that India needed just seven off the final over bowled Sean Abbott. The equation became almost a formality when the left-hander from Aligarh hit a boundary and took a single off the first two balls. But three wickets in the three subsequent deliveries, two of them run-outs, injected some uncertainty with a single needed off the last ball. It was then that Rinku deposited one over long-off, a delivery subsequently found to be a no-ball.
Big crowd
Sunday had ended with a wave of disappointment throughout the country, but spectators packing the stadium in Vizag proved there was no sense of ‘overkill’ or ‘lack of context’ as far as they were concerned, as they saw India achieve their highest successful chase in T20Is.
A target of over 200 is never easy, regardless of batting conditions and the bowlers in the opposition. Both teams sported considerably different looks from those in the World Cup final. Surya was the only Indian player who was in action in both games, and Ishan Kishan the only other one in the XI to see any action during the previous month and a half. Both played key roles, putting up a third-wicket partnership of 112 in 10 overs to keep India up with the required run rate.
Surya, in his first match as India captain, didn’t need to change his game and his 80 off 42 balls meant India were favourites from before the halfway point in the chase.
Kishan had been out of action after India’s second World Cup game, but his 58 off 39 deliveries proved his value in this format at the top of the order. India had lost Ruturaj Gaikwad (run out without facing a ball) and Yashasvi Jaiswal inside three overs, but the batsmen didn’t have the luxury of a time-out. So they went hard and every Aussie bowler, other than left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff, had economy rates in double digits.
Inglis’s versatility on display
During much of Australia’s chase in Sunday’s World Cup final, when Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne were in charge in the middle, many Indian fans would have held onto the hope that it was just a matter of one wicket to bring the home team back into the game. But Inglis’s show on Thursday proved such expectations would have been misplaced.
Visakhapatnam: Australia’s Josh Inglis celebrates his century during the first T20 International cricket match of a T20I series between India and Australia, at the Dr. Y. S. Rajashekar Reddy ACA–VDCA International Cricket Stadium, in Visakhapatnam, Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023. (PTI Photo/Shahbaz Khan)
In fact, just a week before he equalled Australia’s fastest T20I hundred, Inglis had played an absolutely contrasting innings on a spin-friendly pitch in Kolkata to display his versatility and adaptability as a player, taking Australia into the World Cup summit clash.
India didn’t have their first-choice bowling attack – Prasidh Krishna was a non-playing squad member during the World Cup after Hardik Pandya was ruled out, and Arshdeep Singh and Ravi Bishnoi hadn’t played since the Asian Games – and they were taken to the cleaners Inglis, who handed over the wicketkeeping gloves to skipper Matthew Wade. He was the only reason for Australia breaching the 200-run mark as they would feel they left some runs out there.
In the final analysis, the 20th over bowled Mukesh Kumar that went for just five runs, including a no-ball, turned out to be vital. His spell (29 runs conceded in four overs) and left-arm spinner Axar Patel’s intervention in the middle overs (32 in four) kept India in the game and gave their batting line-up a chance, which they duly took.
Even then, they almost messed it up and it was only Rinku’s presence in the middle that prevented the Aussies from pulling another rabbit out of the bag. After Surya got out with 15 needed off 14 balls, he found the vital boundaries that eased India’s nerves in the final couple of overs.