Suryakumar Yadav, the Indian T20I captain, said that he will never forget his catch which helped win the match against South Africa in the ICC T20 World Cup final. According to Yadav, he did not see himself making such a catch in a World Cup final.
India ended their ICC trophy drought in the T20 World Cup, winning their second title after defeating South Africa by seven runs in an exciting final held in Barbados on June 29. The victory was secure by an impressive display of death bowling by Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya plus some amazing knocks from Virat Kohli and Axar Patel according to ANI.
Hardik Pandya who is known for his game winning performances was given the job of defending 16 runs off David Miller’s last over of SA’s innings during a run chase of 177. When Miller tried to hit it hard, Suryakumar was near the boundary. To make that catch valid, he first went out of bounds before coming back into it.
The commentator Ian Smith applauded him for making what he termed as “One of the most athletic catches” which turned tables on India who won by seven runs only. Hence this victory ended its 11-year trophy drought taking place since when India had last won an ICC trophy in 2013-ICC Champions Trophy.
In one video published by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at X Suryakumar exclaimed; “This will stay with me forever because I’ve put those things into my practice sessions so many times. But I didn’t think it would be there at that time WC Final and situation like that. That’s very special feeling to me doing something good on special day like this; yeah there are certain things you say they stay with you for life right? So I think it will be for a lifetime.”
Finishing as the ninth highest run getter with 199 runs from eight games, Suryakumar’s average of 28.42 and strike-rate of above 135 in the T20 World Cup is worth mentioning. He scored two half-centuries with a best score of 53.
Virat Kohli (76), Hardik Pandya (3/20), Jasprit Bumrah (2/18) were the chief performers responsible for Men in Blue’s seven-run win over South Africa at Barbados on June 29 thereby India ending their eleven-year old ICC trophy drought.
India managed to recover from a losing position as Bumrah and Pandya strangled Proteas reaching 176/7 in twenty overs while Bumrah and Pandya slowed them down to 169/8 in twenty overs.
