After Suryakumar Yadav smashed a 44-ball 83 with shots all over the park to hand India a seven-wicket victory over West Indies in the third T20I, young left-handed batter Tilak Varma revealed that he had the urge to go for big shots on seeing the right-hander produce some scintillating strokeplay going for boundaries. Suryakumar, the top-ranked T20I batter, hit ten fours and four sixes in his whirlwind knock, while stitching an 87-run match-winning partnership with Varma, who remained not out on 49, as India kept the five-game series alive. <\/p>\r\n\r\n
"I was enjoying my batting and also enjoyed watching him (Suryakumar) batting from the other end. The ball was too slow and was getting stuck. I talked to Gill (Shubman Gill) after the game ended and asked what was so different in Surya's batting. I just could not fathom the shots he played and on seeing that, I wanted to hit some big shots too. <\/p>\r\n\r\n
I had good starts in the previous two matches and could have carried for longer. So I told Surya that we will go deep and finish the match. The wicket was slow, I took calculated risks and played long. At that time, I also got loose balls and waited for it to come, which is what I did," said Varma in a video posted on bcci.tv.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
On the other hand, Suryakumar, who started his knock with a four and a six off the first two balls he faced, also praised Varma for his mature batting coming in an Indian victory for the first time. <\/p>\r\n\r\n
"Your knock was mature. I got a free hand to express myself because you were standing at the other end with the bat. It was a perfect game and it was really good to see the way he batted," he said. <\/p>\r\n\r\n
The 20-year old Varma revealed that Suryakumar had a wristband on his right hand, on which it was written, "Give yourself time in the powerplay. But he was right on the accelerator from the word go."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
To this, Suryakumar replied, "Sometimes, you have to play bluff with yourself. Aaj maine khud ko ullu bana diya (I tricked myself in the match)! I thought I would take time and peak slowly. But after hitting the first two balls, I then thought I would play to the team’s requirement, and didn’t do anything different. I enjoyed myself, expressed myself to the core and loved batting with the star (Varma)."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Suryakumar signed off by saying he will explain to Varma later how he generates power to hit sixes over square leg on slow pitches. <\/p>\r\n\r\n