Suryakumar Yadav scored his fourth T20I hundred in India’s third and final T20I against South Africa on December 14 (Thursday), becoming the joint-highest century-maker in the format.
Yadav has batted in 57 innings since making his debut in 2021, picking up his fourth wicket against the Proteas, equaling Johannesburg’s record of 55 throws. After India lost Shubman Gill and Jitesh Sharma to back-to-back deliveries, Yadav moved to bat at number four and scored 18 runs by hitting two sixes and a four in four deliveries in the first nine balls. But then he slowed down and in his next 20 balls he scored 17 runs.
He broke the shackles in the 13th over of the innings bowled by Andile Phelkwayo, smashing consecutive balls of 6, 4, 6, 6 and scoring 50 runs off 32 deliveries. He further hit his innings with two sixes and five runs, and in the last over he hit a double which took him to his hundred. After his first 27 balls he took 25, Yadav ran away and in his last 31 balls he scored 73, a memorable total.
Yadav broke several records in the middle of his innings and became the batsman with the most T20I tons at number three or below. Yadav’s innings was studded with eight sixes, the second-highest total in an Indian T20I innings. He also became the second batsman for India in T20Is, ahead of Virat Kohli. He has currently scored maximum 123 runs in 57 of his innings, followed only by Rohit Sharma who has scored 182 runs in his 140 matches.
Yadav, who led the team in the absence of Hardik Pandya, became the second Indian captain after Rohit (twice) to score 100 runs in a T20I match. No one has as many hundreds of T20Is as Yadav, who made his T20I debut just two years before him.
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Mumbai Indians batsmen have currently scored 2,141 runs in this format at an average of 45.55 with a strike rate of 171.55. This is the highest among batsmen who have scored at least his 1,000 runs in this format.
Yadav was finally dismissed after 100 off 56 balls with a run total of 178.57. This is his slowest T20I ton as he had earlier scored 117 in 55 deliveries (strike rate 212.72), 112* in 51 deliveries (219.60) and 111* in 51 deliveries (217.64) is noteworthy.
Thanks to his batting, India scored 201-7 with six batsmen scoring in single digits. In response, they knocked South Africa out of the game with just 95 points and took the series in their favor.
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