Manjrekar Believes Suryakumar's Form Will Give India Advantage In T20 WC 2024

Bridgetown, June 21: Former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has hailed Suryakumar Yadav's ability to score runs in tricky situations and said that the Men in Blue will have an advantage as they have the right-handed batter in the squad.

Suryakumar scored 53 runs from 28 balls at a strike rate of 189.29 against Afghanistan India's first Super 8 clash of T20 World Cup. He slammed 5 fours and 3 sixes during his time on the crease. The right-handed batter's knock came to an end in the 17th over after Fazalhaq Farooqi removed him from the crease.

Speaking on ESPNCricinfo TimeOut show, Manjrekar praised Suryakumar for handling Rashid well on a tricky pitch. The former cricketer added that the right-handed batter always chips the ball in the gaps.

"This is the advantage India have for having one of the best T20 batters in the world. Tricky pitch, Rashid Khan on song and again you saw the value that Suryakumar Yadav brings to any team. And again the thing to like about him which is not really highlighted much is the amount of ground shots that he plays. He chips the balls over the infield in the gaps. So, he's not somebody who's always looking for sixes which means sometimes there can be miss-execution trying to extract power," Manjrekar was quoted by ESPNcricinfo as saying.

Recapping the match, India won the toss and elected to bat first. India were struggling at 90/4 at one point and 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 were bundled out for 134 runs in their 20 overs.

Suryakumar Yadav was given the 'Player of the Match' award. (ANI)