Suryakumar Yadav lit up Wankhede cricket stadium in Mumbai against Gujarat Titans (GT) as he finished with an unbeaten 103 off 49 deliveries in this all-important Indian Premier League (IPL 2023) clash. Surya's innings included 11 boundaries and 6 sixes as he played some outstanding strokes to amaze the fans, including the batting great Sachin Tendulkar. The Mumbai Indians (MI) legend, who is also the mentor of the men's side, was in complete awe of a particular shot that Suryakumar played in his innings on Friday night. That was an unbelievable shot by Surya off Mohammed Shami. It was almost a cover drive, which was turned into a completely different shot at the last moment with a twist of wrists.
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Describing the shot, Tendulkar said that not many can pull it off in world cricket right now. He said, "@surya_14kumar lit up the evening sky today! He played excellent shots through the innings but the one that stood out for me was the 6 over third man off @MdShami11. The way he opened the face of the bat to create that angle off the blade at the same time is very very tough to do and not many batters in world cricket can play that shot."
In the video shared by Jio Cinema, one can see Tendulkar clearly impressed with the shot. He tries to imitate the shot while sitting in the dugout as the cameras cut to him right after the stroke is pulled off by Surya.
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Watch Surya's shot off Shami which has impressed Tendulkar:
How do you hit a cover drive but get it over third man for six?
We watched SKY do it here and still can't understand. What about you? ___#IPLonJioCinema #MIvGT pic.twitter.com/kg9QU7jxuW
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) May 12, 2023
.@surya_14kumar lit up the evening sky today!
He played excellent shots through the innings but the one that stood out for me was the 6 over third man off @MdShami11.The way he opened the face of the bat to create that angle off the blade at the same time is very very tough to_
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) May 12, 2023
Suryakumar sets new records
Suryakumar was a sight to behold and broke and set many records on the way to 103 not out vs GT. SKY, as he is popularly called by fans, now has the third-highest individual score for MI. The top of this list is Sanath Jayasuriya (114*) and Rohit Sharma 109*). Surya went past Sachin Tendulkar (100*) and Lendl Simmons (100*) to the third spot. Also, Suryakumar's unbeaten 103 is now the highest individual score by any batter in IPL vs the defending champions Gujarat Titans.
Suryakumar started off the campaign with a flurry of low scores which raised doubts in the MI campaign. But Surya, in the last couple of games, has really upped his game and this hundred was in the works for some time now. Surya smashed a 66 off 31 balls, not so long back vs Punjab Kings and followed it up with a 35-ball 83 vs RCB before this knock on Friday.
