Suryakumar Yadav was the star performer for Mumbai Indians as they took a massive step towards guaranteeing their spot in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 playoffs with the win over Gujarat Titans on Friday. The top India batter was in tremendous form and he went on to score an unbeaten 103 off 49 deliveries. While Rashid Khan did not mount a considerable fightback for the defending champions, the innings proved to be the difference between the two sides. After the game, Suryakumar opened up about the innings and even shared a special story about his wife Devisha.
"I felt good to see my family, most importantly to see Devisha seated there, she had missed my 3 international hundreds. She wasn't there to attend those games. Felt happy, now people won't be able to say that she came and that's why I couldn't score a century," Suryakumar said during an interaction with MI teammate Akash Madhwal in the aftermath of the encounter.
Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma feels Suryakumar Yadav oozes confidence which rubs off on the other batters in his IPL side. After a slow start to the season,
Suryakumar is back to his explosive best. In MI's 27-run win against table-toppers Gujarat Titans on Friday, he blazed away to an unbeaten 103 off just 49 balls, notching his maiden IPL century.
"The guy has got the confidence. We wanted to keep right-left combination but SKY came in and said no, he wanted to go in," Rohit said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
"That is the kind of confidence he has and that rubs off on others. Every game he wants to start fresh and does not look back at the previous game. Sometimes you can sit back and feel proud but that is not the case with him," he added.
Mumbai were on course to a huge win before Rashid Khan smashed a brutal unbeaten 79 off just 32 balls to reduce Gujarat's margin of defeat.
"It was an interesting game especially from our point of view, happy to get the two points. That was pleasing, bat first and then come out and defend the total. We kept picking wickets and in this format you have to do that, great bowling effort from our bowlers."
(With PTI inputs)