Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) NEW DELHI: India started their T20 World Cup campaign with a win over the USA but skipper Suryakumar Yadav admitted the team had to dig deep after a shaky start. India posted 161/9, largely thanks to SKY’s unbeaten 84 off 49 balls after the top and middle order collapsed. USA then managed 132/8 in reply as the Indian bowlers kept things under control.
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After the match, Suryakumar was candid about India’s batting struggles. He said: “Only I can say the position we were in at 77/6, the pressure we were under… We could have batted a bit better.” He also spoke about the conditions, noting that the pitch and morning light were unusual, but stressed that the team should not make excuses.“It was a slightly different wicket to what it always is at the Wankhede. But at the same time we knew when we woke up in the morning we saw outside that there wasn’t much sun outside,” he added.Surya, who won the Man of the Match award for his exceptional knock, explained how he approached his innings when India were in trouble, adding: “I always felt the need to bat till the end. I never felt it was a 180-190 wicket. I felt it was a 140 wicket.” He revealed that coach Gautam Gambhir also advised him to stay till the end and come back. “Gauti bhai told me the same during the break after 14 overs. He told me just try and bat till the end, you can cover it anytime,” he continued.Drawing on his experience of playing in Mumbai on the maidans, he concentrated on timing his strokes and handling the innings under pressure.He also reflected on his personal journey, saying, “I definitely knew it would come one day… I was trying to bat that way, hold the innings for the team, but it wasn’t happening.”The Indian bowlers then came on board. Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel shared crucial wickets to keep USA’s chase in check. Although Milind Kumar, Shubham Ranjane and Suraj Krishnamurthi defended with useful knocks, they could not match India’s experience at crunch time.Earlier, India were rattled for 77/6 after Shadley van Schalkwyk tore through the batting with four wickets, including a triple strike in one over. But Suryakumar’s calm and aggressive knock saved India and gave the bowlers enough runs to defend.India eventually won by 29 runs, an important but hard-fought victory that showed both their resilience and the areas they still need to improve.
