Newshub18:Suryakumar-Storm, India in Super Four.
India became the second team after Afghanistan to reach the Super Four of the 2022 Asia Cup. Rohit Sharma’s team became the first team from Group A to enter the Super Four after beating Hong Kong by 40 runs in Dubai for their second straight win. India started this year’s Asia Cup by defeating arch-rival PakistanSuryakumar Yadav’s failed batting against Pakistan caused a storm today. After 10 innings, Virat Kohli scored his first fifty in the Indian jersey, but Suryakumar was the man of the match. Kohli’s innings of 59 runs paled in Suryakumar’s innings of 68 runsWhen Suryakumar came into bat after Lokesh Rahul’s dismissal, India were 94 for 2 in 13 overs, Kohli was unbeaten on 33. It was India who scored 98 runs in the last 7 overs and ended the innings at 192 for 2 wickets.
Fours off the first two balls they faced, Suryakumar ended up unbeaten on 68 off 26 balls. He took only 26 runs in the last over. Kohli was unbeaten on 59 off 44 balls after watching the Suryakumar-Jhar storm from close range. Kohli hit 3 sixes.
Hong Kong captain Nizakat Khan surprised a little by winning the toss and fielding. However, his bowlers did not allow the Indians to storm in the beginning. India captain Rohit Sharma made 21 off 13 balls, but another opener Lokesh Rahul’s bat did not have the T20 flavor. Rahul scored 36 runs off 39 balls before being dismissed as the second batsman. Leaving the team at 38 runs, Rohit became the first batsman in T20 history to reach the milestone of 3,500 runs yesterday.
After Rohit’s departure, Kohli added 56 runs off 49 balls with Rahul. After Rahul’s departure, he scored 26 runs off 16 balls but eventually faded in the light of Suryakumar.
Suryakumar hit 6 fours and a six in the 26-ball innings. Hong Kong pacer Harun Arshad hit 4 out of 6 sixes in the last over. Suryakumar, who hit sixes in the first three balls of the over, did not repeat Yuvraj Singh’s feat of six sixes, but set a record right. He now holds the record for most runs in the last over of an innings for India in T20Is.
Hong Kong stopped at 152 for 5 in the run chase. Hong Kong’s run rate was keeping pace with the Indian innings until the middle of the innings. But in the end Suryakumar’s innings made the difference. No one in Hong Kong could be Suryakumar.
Babar Hayat scored 41 runs off 35 balls for Hong Kong. Apart from this, Kinchit Shah made 30 off 28 balls. However, the T20’s useful strike rates were in the innings of both – Zeeshan Ali was 26 off 17 balls and Scott McKechnie was unbeaten on 16 off 8 balls.
Four Indian bowlers took 1 wicket each