Suryakumar Yadav surpasses Mohammad Rizwan, becomes the first batter to achieve this feat

Suryakumar Yadav: India has won the first T20 match against South Africa at Trivandrum by 8 wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. It was not an easy pitch to bat on for both teams, and that’s what the scorecard suggests. But Suryakumar Yadav looked to be playing on a totally different pitch and carried on his rich form.

It started with the toss. Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bowl first. Indian seamers gave India a dream start and dismissed the first five South African batters for just nine runs. However, good contributions by Aiden Markram (25), Wayne Parnell (24) and Keshav Maharaj (41) helped South Africa reach 106/8 in 20 overs.

For India, Arshdeep Singh picked up 3/32, while Deepak Chahar and Harshal Patel took two wickets each. Ravi Ashwin bowled an exceptional spell of 0/8 in four overs. It looked like a pretty easy target to chase. But the South African pacer didn’t allow the Indians to get away. Rohit Sharma (0) and Virat Kohli (2) got out early.

In the first six overs, India scored only 17 runs, which is the lowest for India in the history of T20I. But once Virat got out, it brought Suryakumar Yadav to the crease and he started his innings with two consecutive sixes off Nortje.

Since then, he, along with Rahul, changed the whole equation. Both batters added an unbeaten partnership of 93 runs and chased down the target in 16.4 overs. Rahul remained not out on 51* off 56 balls with two fours and four sixes, while SKY was unbeaten on 50* off 33 balls with five boundaries and three sixes.

IND vs SA: Suryakumar Yadav surpasses Mohammad Rizwan

With this knock, SKY has broken the record of veteran opener Shikhar Dhawan for most runs for India in T20 internationals. SKY has also become the first Indian batter to cross the 700-run mark for an Indian in one calendar year and also surpassed Dhawan’s tally of 689, which was scored in 2018.

SKY has scored 732 runs at an average of 40.66 and a strike of 180.29 in 2022. He hit three sixes in his 50-run knock against South Africa and also broke the record of Mohammad Rizwan for hitting the most sixes in a calendar year. Suryakumar Yadav hit 45 sixes in 2022 and Rizwan hit 42 sixes in 26 innings in 2021. However, SKY has already hit 45 sixes in 21 innings this year.