“Booking a flight and a hotel room for the World Cup” - Michael Vaughan reacts to Suryakumar Yadav’s scintillating ton in 3rd IND vs ENG T20I

Former England captain Michael Vaughan reckons that Team India batter Suryakumar Yadav has emphatically sealed his T20 World Cup spot following his stunning hundred on Sunday.

Suryakumar registered his maiden T20I hundred in the third and final match of the series against England in Nottingham. He scored a magnificent 117 off 55 balls even as the visitors lost the game by 17 runs while chasing 216.

Reacting to the 31-year-old batter’s innings, Vaughan admitted that it was a special performance. During an interaction on Cricbuzz, he said:

“That’s what you call booking a flight and a hotel room for the World Cup. He’s a special player. He can just access boundaries pretty much 360 degrees. He’s got great wrists and power. Incredible timing. That was a very special innings. Didn’t quite do enough to get India over the line, but to get so close was down to one individual."

India crumbled to 31 for three in the chase. Suryakumar, however, smashed 14 fours and six sixes to single-handedly keep India alive in the contest. He eventually perished to Moeen Ali in the penultimate over as India lost the game.

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“He plays strokes that are high-risk, but makes them look low-risk” - Vaughan on Suryakumar Yadav

Analyzing the in-form batter’s ton on Sunday, Vaughan commented that he makes stroke-making look rather easy and also compared him to Jos Buttler. The former England skipper stated:

"He plays strokes that are high-risk, but makes them look low-risk. When Jos Buttler is playing at his best, he plays shots that you think must be really risky. But he makes those look very simple. That’s exactly what Suryakumar did today (Sunday).”

Sharing his thoughts, former India left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan opined that the Men in Blue could have got even closer to England’s target had Suryakumar received better support from the other batters. He said:

“Surya got them very close. (There was) Lack of support. Lots of expectations from Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja and Harshal Patel as well. When you didn’t get the start at the top, you needed all other things to fall into place.

"That didn’t happen, so Suryakumar was the lone fighter. The 360 degree player was on display. If he was there in the last over, Chris Jordan would have been under tremendous pressure.”

Following Suryakumar’s dismissal, India went into the last over needing 21. They managed only three runs while losing two wickets.

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