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Suryakumar Yadav played the perfect captain's knock in India's run chase of 209 against Australia in Visakhapatnam on November 23. Suryakumar's 80-run knock took India to the doorstep of victory before Rinku Singh's heroics helped India win the match by two wickets. After the match, Suryakumar revealed his conversation with Ishan Kishan after two early wickets in a mammoth run chase and how he did not let the pressure of captaincy affect his game.
“Just enjoy and express yourself. We’ve been in such situations many times in franchise cricket, just told Ishan to enjoy himself. We knew what was going to happen. I left the luggage of captaincy in the dressing room. I try to enjoy my batting. The atmosphere was amazing, thanks to the crowd,” Suryakumar said in the post-match presentation.
Suryakumar was ecstatic with the team’s performance and leading the Indian side for the first time.
“Very happy with the way the boys played. Was very happy with their energy, we were put under pressure but the way everyone showed up was amazing. It’s a proud moment, very proud moment, everytime you play, you think about representing India but coming out here and captaining India is a big moment,” the explosive batter said.
Suryakumar explained why he chose to bat and lauded the bowlers for restricting Australia to 208/3 after Josh Inglis' maiden T20I ton.
“Thought there will be a little bit of dew but there wasn’t. It isn’t a big ground and I knew batting will get easy. Thought they might get 230-235 but the bowlers did really well,” the 33-year-old said.
While India needed 15 runs from 14 balls after Suryakumar's wicket, he lauded Rinku Singh for bringing calm to the crease and finishing the run chase. Rinku remained unbeaten for 22 off 14 balls as his six was not counted because Sean Abbott bowled a no ball.
“Was great to see how the boys kept their nerves. Was great to see Rinku, the situation was tailor-made for him. He was calm and collected, calmed me down a little bit,” he concluded.
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