After a little blip in his form during the ODI series against Australia, Suryakumar Yadav is back to his best in the IPL 2023.
The belligerent Mumbai Indians batsman has smashed 376 runs in 11 innings at an astronomical strike rate of 186. Suryakumar has cracked 4 fifties in his last 7 IPL innings, the latest of which was a stunning assault of 83 runs off 35 balls against RCB, helping MI chased down the target of 200 runs in 16.3 overs.
As he blew the RCB bowling attack to smithereens, fans once again brought up his comparison with the great AB de Villiers. Over the past 2-3 years, SKY has earned the nickname of being India’s Mr. 360 because of his extraordinary range of hitting and ability to find gaps all around the ground, on par with only AB de Villiers.
Here are a few shots that Suryakumar Yadav and AB de Villiers played to perfection:
Lap shot over fine leg
A major portion of Skv’s runs come behind the square and majorly to the right of square leg. And this is in particular which gets his stroke-making compared with de Villiers, who also got heavy runs behind square on the legside.
There is a dissimilarity though in the way both play the lap shot. While de Villiers moved significantly across the off-stump to lap it over fine leg, Suryakumar doesn’t get as much across. To pacers his generally stands in his crease and swivels while to spinners he uses a big plant of his feet and laps the ball over the short fine fielder.
Watch 6s number 4 and 5 in this:
Slice over point
This is a special shot from Suryakumar Yadav which rarely any batsman in the world can play to such perfection. To the balls outside off-stump, SKY waits a bit longer than usually other batters do. And instead of hammering it through covers, Suryakumar opens the bat face at the very last moment possible to slice it over point.
What’s astonishing is that he impact an unbelievable amount of power from his wrists that it often sails over the fence for a six.
Magnificient six over covers
Not many batter can hit a ball over the covers for a six with the nonchalance ease that Suryakumar Yadav does and that de Villiers did. Both SKY and ABD had the special talent and ability to target their areas astutely.
Watch 6 number 3 in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkWjT83ShaU
https://youtube.com/shorts/T0R8ESmlBC4?feature=share
