The Indian cricket team is getting a lot of praises for the manner in which it bounced back in the 5-match T20I series after getting trailed by 0-2 and Suryakumar Yadav deserves a special mention for the brilliant knock of 83 runs that he played in the third T20I.
The match was played at the Providence Stadium, Guyana and the hosts won the toss and chose to bat first. West Indies had a steady start as their openers, Brandon King (42 runs, 42 balls, 5 fours & 1 six) and Kyle Mayers (25 runs, 20 balls, 3 fours & 1 six) produced a partnership of 55 runs in 8 overs. Their star hitter Nicholas Pooran came to bat in the 11th over and by that time, the score of WI was 75/2.
It was quite obvious that middle order batters had no time to settle in so they had to hit the ball from the very first delivery and this was something for which India was already ready.
After the match, skipper Hardik Pandya stated that Nicholas Pooran didn’t come to bat early which helped them in keeping the pacers back and Axar Patel also bowled his complete quota of four overs. Hardik Pandya said that he kept his overs so that when Nicholas comes, he can bowl him and let the West Indian batter hit him as he (Hardik Pandya) likes such competition. Pandya further said that he knows Nicholas Pooran will come hard at him in the fourth T20I after hearing him but he is fine with it.
Hardik brought himself back into bowling when Nicholas Pooran came to bat but the West Indian hitter was dismissed by the Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav who was the pick of the bowlers for India as he ended the match with good figures of 3/28.
Suryakumar Yadav was adjudged as the Player of the Match for his superb knock and now both the matches are must win for team India if it wants to win the series.