MUMBAI: Star India and Mumbai Indians (MI) batter Suryakumar Yadav reached the 6,000 run mark in T20 cricket on Saturday.
The 32-year-old batter accomplished this milestone during his side’s Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match against T20 cricket) at the home arena of Wankhede Stadium.
In the match, during a chase of 215, Suryakumar made his return to form after a few failures in international cricket and IPL, scoring 57 off 26 balls. His knock consisted of seven fours and three sixes. His runs came at a strike rate of 219.23.
With this innings, he has scored 6,021 runs in 248 matches and 226 innings at an average of 34.01. His runs have come at a strike rate of 149.55. He has three centuries and 38 half-centuries in his short format career, with the best score of 117.
Suryakumar’s international-level statistics in T20 cricket are stunning. In 46 innings across 48 matches, he has scored 1,675 runs at an average of 46.52 and a strike rate of 175.76. He has scored three centuries and 13 half-centuries for India in the format, with the best score of 117.
He was the winner of the ICC T20I Cricketer of the Year 2022 award.
In his IPL career, during which he has represented teams like Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders, Suryakumar has scored 2,767 runs at an average of 29.75 and a strike rate of 137.94. He has scored 17 half-centuries in his IPL career, with the best score of 82.
His 2018 season with MI is his most successful in IPL. In 14 matches, he scored 512 runs at an average of 36.57 and a strike rate of 133.33. He scored four half-centuries that season, with the best score of 72. He was the eighth-highest run-scorer that season and the highest run-scorer for MI that season.
MI won the toss and opted to field first against PBKS. PBKS inning ended at 214/8 in their 20 overs. Sam Curran (55 in 29 balls with five fours and four sixes), Harpreet Singh (41 in 28 balls with four boundaries and two sixes) and Atharva Taide (29 off 17 balls with three fours and a six) were among the top batters for Punjab.
Piyush Chawla (2/15 in three overs) was the pick of the bowlers for MI. Cameron Green also took 2/41 in his four overs. Jofra Archer, Jason Behrendorff and Arjun Tendulkar got one scalp each.
Chasing 215, MI lost Ishan Kishan early, but a 76-run stand for the second wicket between skipper Rohit Sharma (44 off 27 balls with four boundaries and three sixes) and Green brought MI back into the game. Green, who scored 67 off 43 balls with six fours and three sixes also stitched a 75-run stand with Suryakumar Yadav (57 off 26 balls, seven fours and three sixes) for the third wicket.
But PBKS and Arshdeep (4/29) in particular delivered excellently in the death overs to win the match by 13 runs for PBKS.
Sam Curran won the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his half-century.
With this win, PBKS is in the fifth position with four wins and three losses in seven matches and a total of eight points. MI is in seventh position with three wins and three losses in six games and a total of six points.
Brief scores: PBKS: 214/8 (Sam Curran 55, Harpreet Singh 41, Piyush Chawla 2/15) won over MI: 201/6 (Cameron Green 67, Suryakumar Yadav 57, Arshdeep Singh 4/29). (ANI)