It puts pressure on opposition bowlers: Kumble on Suryakumar’s blistering knock against Afghanistan

Bridgetown [Barbados], June 21 (ANI): Former cricketer Anil Kumble opened up on India batter Suryakumar Yadav’s performance against Afghanistan in the Super Eights match of the T20 World Cup 2024 and said that it put pressure on the opposition bowlers.

Suryakumar scored 53 runs from 28 balls at a strike rate of 189.29 in the first inning. He slammed 5 fours and 3 sixes during his time on the crease. The right-handed batter’s knock had to come to an end in the 17th over after Fazalhaq Farooqi removed him from the crease.

Speaking exclusively to ESPNCricinfo TimeOut show, Kumble said that Suryakumar’s performance gives India the kind of power they needed from someone who’s batting at the number four.

“It gives India the kind of power and stroke play that you need at someone who’s batting at number four. It certainly puts pressure on the opposition bowlers because it’s not easy to control a Surya in this kind of form. You don’t know where to bowl, wherever you bowl the field is sort of you find it hard to stop him from scoring boundaries. So yeah it certainly augurs well. First game of the Super 8s and you have Surya coming back into this kind of form,” Kumble was quoted by ESPNcricinfo as saying.

Recapping the match, India won the toss and elected to bat first. India was struggling at 90/4 at one point, then came a match-saving 60-run partnership between Suryakumar Yadav (53 in 28 balls, with five fours and three sixes) and Hardik Pandya (32 in 24 balls, with three fours and two sixes) that took India to 181/8 in their 20 overs.

Rashid Khan (3/26) and Fazalhaq Farooqi (3/33) were the top bowlers for Afghanistan.

In the run-chase of 182 runs, Afghanistan never looked threatening and lost wickets regularly. Azmatullah Omarzai (26 in 20 balls, with two fours and a six) was the only one to cross the 20-run mark as other batters failed miserably against Bumrah (3/7), Arshdeep (3/36) and Kuldeep Yadav (2/32). Afghanistan was bundled out for 134 runs in their 20 overs.

Suryakumar Yadav was given the ‘Player of the Match’ award.