Suryakumar Yadav’s fantastic run in 2022 continues as he became the first Indian to score a T20I century on New Zealand soil. Suryakumar hit his second T20I century as India played their first T20I after the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final loss against England earlier this month.
Suryakumar remained not out for 111 from 51 deliveries at a strike rate of 217.65 in the second T20I of the three-T20I series. His knock was studded with 11 fours and seven sixes.
Suryakumar also broke Corey Anderson's record of highest T20I individual score at Mount Maunganui. Anderson had scored unbeaten 94 against Bangladesh in 2017. His knock helped India post 191/6 on the board. India's score is also the highest T20I total at the venue.
Suryakumar is now the second Indian batter to score two T20I centuries in a calendar year. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma scored two T20I centuries in 2018.
So far in 2022, he has scored 1,151 runs from 30 innings at an average of 47.95 including nine half-centuries and two centuries. He has maintained a strike rate of 188.37 in the year. Also, he became the first Indian batter to hit more than 100 fours (105) in T20Is in a calendar year.
Apart from Rohit, only New Zealand's Colin Munro (2017) and South African batter Rilee Rossouw (2022) have hit two T20I centuries in a calendar year. Surya's unbeaten 111 is the highest by an Indian batter in the format against the Kiwis. The previous best belonged to Rohit and Dhawan who scored 80 runs respectively.
The 32-year-old also had a chance to break Virat Kohli's (122 not out) record for highest T20I score by an Indian batter but he did not get the strike in the last over as Tim Southee took a hat-trick, removing Hardik Pandya, Deepak Hooda and Washington Sundar.