India completed a 3-0 clean-sweep in the T20I series against Sri Lanka with a thrilling super over victory in their final match on Tuesday. Sri Lanka looked comfortably placed in the run chase but Suryakumar’s stunning decision to use Rinku Singh as a bowler in the 19th over and himself bowling the final over of the match provided to be a brilliant one. From 110/1, Sri Lanka lost wickets in a heap as they could only manage to score 137/8 in 20 overs. In the super over, the hosts were once again outplayed as India marched on to a huge win. Former India cricketer Mohammad Kaif was impressed by Suryakumar’s captaincy and he took to social media to pay him a massive compliment on his bowling changes.
“Bhai Rohit Sharma ka chela hai Surya.. 19th over Rinku se, 20th over khud SKY and won the game. What else one needs to be a great leader?” he posted on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Bhai Rohit Sharma ka chela hai Surya.. 19th over Rinku se, 20th over khud SKY and won the game. What else one needs to be a great leader?
— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) July 30, 2024
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 practicing 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.
(With IANS inputs)
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