Former Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal was left in awe of Suryakumar Yadav's brilliance after the India batter guided his side to a seven-wicket win over West Indies in the third T20I of the five-match series in Guyana on Tuesday. Suryakumar was back to his disdainful best as India stayed alive in the series against the Carribean side. West Indies skipper Rovman Powell's whirlwind 40 not out off 19 balls pushed the hosts to 159 for five after Kuldeep Yadav (3/28) stemmed the flow of runs in the middle overs. Debutant Yashavi Jaiswal (1) and Shubman Gill (6) got out cheaply in run chase before Suryakumar came up with a special 83 off 44 balls to help India gun down the target in 17.5 overs.
"When early wickets fell, it was still okay because the senior batters took responsibility and ensured the job was done. Suryakumar Yadav is such a player that when scores runs, he just makes the game one-sided and that's exactly what he did," the former Pakistan wicketkeeper said on his YouTube channel.
Tilak Varma (49 not out off 37) was happy to play second fiddle to his senior Mumbai Indians teammate Suryakumar in their 87-run stand. Tilak missed his second straight fifty in his debut series as skipper Hardik Pandya (20 not out off 15) hit the winning six.
It was a victory for India after losing two matches on trot against West Indies. Talking about India's batting, Akmal observed: "There has been a marked change in batting. There has been a sense of responsibility and game awareness that 'Hey, we are doing something wrong and we need to change it if we want to win games'."
(With PTI Inputs)