India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav equalled Virat Kohli’s record in the format. Suryakumar became the joint-fastest Indian to 2,000 T20I during his 36-ball 56 against South Africa in the second T20I. He achieved the milestone from his 56th T20I innings.
He is only behind Pakistan’s Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan who breached the mark in their 52nd T20I innings.
This is Suryakumar’s fourth fifty-plus score against South Africa in five innings. Only three other batters -- Jonny Bairstow, Rizwan, and David Warner -- have four fifty-plus scores against South Africa in the format.
Suryakumar is the fourth Indian batter to score 2,000 or more runs. Kohli is on top with 4,008 runs from 107 innings followed by Rohit Sharma (3,853 runs) and KL Rahul (2,256 runs).
Suryakumar had to walk out to bat early in the innings. After Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill registered ducks, Suryakumar took his guard on the first ball of the fourth over. He started by taking on Gerald Coetzee with two fours and a six in the fourth over. After Tilak Varma's wicket, Suryakumar reached his century from 29 balls.
In the 14th over, Tabraiz Shamsi dismissed Suryakumar. He was deceived by the googly and Marco Jansen took a comfortable catch. His 56-run knock was laced with five fours and three sixes.
During the knock, Suryakumar also surpassed Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik, Ishan Kishan and MS Dhoni to become the fourth-highest run-scorer for India against South Africa in T20Is. He is only behind Rohit (420 runs), Suresh Raina (339 runs) and Kohli (318 runs).
After Suryakumar’s wicket, Rinku Singh took charge. Despite Jitesh Sharma getting dismissed cheaply by Aiden Markram, Rinku reached his half-century from 30 deliveries. Ravindra Jadeja contributed with a 14-ball 19 cameo. After two quick wickets from Gerald Coetzee in the final over, rain played spoilsport. Rinku remained unbeaten for 68 off 39 balls featuring nine fours and a couple of sixes as India had 180/7 on the board.
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