Sylvester D’Souza was leaving after collecting his individual award, when Suryakumar Yadav stopped him in his tracks. The seamer had returned with a five-for (5/21) in Triumph Knights MNE’s six-wicket win over MSC Maratha Royals in the T20 Mumbai League at Wankhede Stadium on Monday. The Man-of-the-Match award, though, went to Surya for his rollicking 72 not out off 36 balls. The skipper handed over the prize to the youngster.
At the post-match press conference, D’Souza would reveal how the conversation went between the two at the presentation. “He (Surya) told me, ‘thoda ruk ja (wait for a while)’. I was surprised,” said D’Souza. “Then, he handed over his Man-of-the-Match award to me. He is such a great captain.”
Is there a change in Surya since he has lost India captaincy? “No, I don’t think there’s any change,” said D’Souza. “In fact, I’d say he is much more driven. He is just the Surya that we’ve known for the past five years, 10 years that he’s been at his peak. And I feel that there’s no change in his attitude as such. He is still bonding very well with the team, getting players to get in the team activity, having fun. Very serious about this tournament to be honest.
“He is very on time with the overs, backing his bowlers, backing his batters. And you know there are a lot of players who come up to him and want to learn a lot about cricket, and he is very open to sharing his knowledge. So I don’t think there’s any change. I think he is very happy for whatever happened.”
It felt like a switch had been flicked. In his last two innings in this tournament, it has been vintage Surya. On Saturday he scored 48 off 24 balls. Today, his innings had only one six — a lofted drive over cover off medium pacer Irfan Umair — but he still scored at a strike-rate of 200. As regards the six, it was a sensational shot.
In an over from left-arm spinner Shreyas Gaurav, Suyra hit three consecutive fours. The first one was a stinging square drive, followed by a flick-drive over mid-wicket and a slog-sweep to the mid-wicket boundary. A little later, he brought out the lap against off-spinner Maxwell Swaminathan. He was batting unfettered, the way he used to before becoming India captain.
This begs the question, what happened over the last one-and-a-half years that would eventually cost him India captaincy? Was he burdened by the added responsibility, or was it a case of him trying to be even smarter, something that wasn’t needed?
Surya revolutionised T20 batting in India. The last two games in the T20 Mumbai League were a testament to the fact that his batting can still carry that wow factor. Just that he failed to do it where it mattered… for an elongated period.
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