With Sri Lanka needing nine runs to win off 12 balls, India summoned Rinku Singh to press his part-time off-spin bowling into action. Rinku, bowling for the first time in T20Is, gave away only three runs while picking two wickets in a superb 19th over. There was more out-of-the-box thinking in store as captain Suryakumar Yadav brought himself on to bowl the last over, defended five runs by picking up two wickets and sent the game to a Super Over, where India won to seal a 3-0 triumph.
“I have a lot of wickets in domestic cricket. It’s not like that, and I even have a wicket in ODIs. I had been informed by Surya to be ready for bowling in the series. Though I didn’t bowl in the run-up to this game, Surya bhai had told me to keep practising my bowling and asked me to do it during warm-up.”
“When the game was on, I did not expect that I would be asked to bowl, as the situation was totally neck-and-neck. Then he asked me to roll my arm over and once I started to bowl, it was God’s plan – two wickets,” said Rinku in a video posted by BCCI on their ‘X’ account.
Off-spinner Washington Sundar, who starred with an all-round performance (25 runs, 2-23) and restricted Sri Lanka to just two runs in the Super Over, was also in awe of Suryakumar’s inventiveness.
“It was a great decision by Surya first of all to bring in Rinku (in the 19th over). Rinku makes things very difficult for us when he bowls in the nets and now he’s shown that in this game as well.”
“For Surya to bring himself into one of the most crunch situations, and almost winning the game for the team was amazing. Honestly, I was just focusing on what I wanted to do against those batters.”
“It was a great opportunity given to me, especially to win the game for my country. I don’t know how many people would get the opportunity to do that every now and then,” he said.
Sairaj Bahutule, India’s bowling coach on the tour, said one can expect surprises with Suryakumar as the captain of the T20I team. “The way I think Surya operates; you can never be short of surprises. It was a brave decision again.”
“The only learning from this is that all the batters should be bowling and on wickets like this, you might need to bowl that one over, which is crucial. We pushed ourselves to get into the Super Over and Washy did the job for us.”
Suryakumar said he knew of the ways to take the game deep and win it from there, albeit with the ball and as the captain. “I have featured in these close games previously under other captains. It means that I have seen how they have used bowlers to take matches to the last ball of the final over in many ways.”
“I had said to Riyan and Rinku to keep bowling in the nets, as the wickets here are such that if they are dry, then you are needed to roll your arm over for a few overs. When it was 30 needed off 30 balls, I was reminded of what happened a month ago (in the T20 World Cup final). That wicket was easy, but this one was turning.”
“We thought that if we bowl one-two tight overs and get a wicket or two, it will create pressure and keep them away from winning the match. Taking that out-of-the-box call came into my mind, and I took it. I do really like my high-risk, high-reward system and it worked well.”
He signed off by citing his vast experience before playing internationally came in handy at Pallekele.
“I have played lots of local cricket, domestic cricket, which really teaches you a lot about how to get your runs and where to contain them while playing international cricket. All of those learnings came from the grassroots levels, and I am using all of that skill, apart from seeing how Rohit bhai, Virat bhai and Mahi bhai used to do it.”
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