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'Quite a few brilliant shots but...': Tendulkar leads special praise for Suryakumar's 'amazing' ton against England
The right-handed batter, who brought up his 48-ball ton with a deliberate edge for four, needed just 16 balls to get from 50 to three figures on Sunday.
Suryakumar Yadav's heroics with the bat went in vain as India succumbed to a 17-run defeat to England in the third and final T20I of the series. Yadav was belligerence in his stroke-play, becoming only the second Indian to score a century at the No. 4 spot or below after KL Rahul, who had also reached the three-figure mark at No .4 against West Indies in Lauderhill. The right-handed batter, who brought up his 48-ball ton with a deliberate edge for four, needed just 16 balls to get from 50 to three figures. Also Read | 'Sourav, Sehwag, Yuvraj have been dropped': Venkatesh Prasad says players can't play on reputation, calls for 'action'
Suryakumar's blistering ton put India within touching distance of completing a 3-0 series sweep over the hosts. But he holed out in the penultimate over, leaving the team with 21 runs to get off the last six deliveries. India fell short on 198-9, in response to England's imposing 215-7.
He may have not steered the visiting team past the finish line, but Suryakumar earned high praise from former players and fans. “Amazing Hundred @surya_14kumar!There were quite a few brilliant shots but those scoop 6s over point were just spectacular.#ENGvIND," tweeted Sachin Tendulkar.
Virender Sehwag also lauded Suryakumar for his "crazy" stroke play. “Wow SKY! Surya shining at it’s brightest. Crazy hitting #IndvEng," he tweeted.
Opposition captain Jos Buttler, who won his first game as England's full-time white-ball captain, also lavished praise on the Indian. "It was some innings from Suryakumar Yadav," said Buttler. "It was one of the best hundreds that I've seen and he put us under a lot of pressure."
India captain Rohit Sharma added: "It was a fantastic chase and we are proud of our fight. Suryakumar Yadav was magnificent to watch. I have been watching him for a while and he loves this format, he is unorthodox and has a wide range of shots. He never lets the tempo go."
Rohit said Suryakumar has grown strength to strength since his inclusion in the national side. “He has grown from strength to strength since we got him into the squad. They put us under pressure with their batting. A decent partnership put us on the back foot.”
“You back yourself to get this score. We were clear in trying out guys if they can bowl 4 overs. We have things to work on as a group. Hope so. So far things are pretty good. We do not want to sit on laurels. We want to get better every game,” added Rohit.
