Suryakumar Yadav (C) with PM Narendra Modi© X (formerly Twitter)
Suryakumar Yadav’s catch in the final over of the T20 World Cup final will go down the annals of Indian cricketing history as one of the seminal moments of the triumphant journey. During an interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the team’s triumphant return home, Suryakumar Yadav (SKY) revealed what had helped him keep calm in that situation. “At that moment I did not think that I would catch it, I was thinking I’d push the ball in and save the boundary because the wind was also against me. Once I had the ball in my hand I thought I’d throw it the other side but Rohit bhai was too far at that time so I threw it in the air and caught it,” he said. “We have practised a lot for such situations as I think that I already do batting but where else can I contribute to the team,” said Yadav to the Hon’ble Prime Minister.
India needed to defend 16 runs in the last over thanks to a brilliant final few overs by Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh, who restricted the opposition to two and four runs in their respective overs. Hardik Pandya’s first ball might not have been exactly where he meant to throw it but a brilliant effort by Suryakumar at long off saw the departure of David Miller and helped India lift the trophy.
#WATCH | During his interaction with PM Narendra Modi, Suryakumar Yadav said, “…At that moment I did not think whether I would be able to catch the ball or not and once the ball came in my hand, I had to pick it up and pass it to the other side… We have practised this thing a… pic.twitter.com/1dJ3G4taEd
— ANI (@ANI) July 5, 2024
PM Modi also went on to ask if the team practices for catches so close to the boundary ropes ‘where you may have to throw the ball in the air’, to which Rahul Dravid revealed that Surya has taken ‘150-160 such catches in the practice.’
“Ever since I came from the IPL, I had taken many such catches but did not know God would give me the opportunity at such a time. The practice helped me in keeping calm at that point. The only difference was usually no one was sitting in the stands but there were quite a lot of people at that time,” joked SKY.
PM Modi said that he could not help but appreciate the effort from Suryakumar Yadav in such a big match and even called him lucky that such a big occasion is now connected to SKY’s life.
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