Anubhav Katheria
Suryakumar Yadav and Rinku Singh’s out of syllabus bowling helped India win the 3rd and final T20I against Sri Lanka in the super over, Indian team whitewash the series by 3-0.
Suryakumar Yadav and Rinku Singh’s bowling helped the Indian team to stop Sri Lanka in the final overs. The Indian captain’s last over was the highlight of the match. India was defending 9 runs in last 2 overs when the Indian finisher Rinku Singh came to bowl the 19th over, he bowled a magnificent over where he took 2 wickets and gave away just 3 runs, this unpredictable decision by Suryakumar Yadav to give the bowl to Rinku who hasn’t bowl ever in the T20I, pulled India back in the game.
Surya decided to bowl the 20th over himself, he took 2 wickets and gave away 5 runs, the match went in the super over where Washington Sundar took the charge and stopped SL on a total of 2 runs, Sundar clinched 2 wickets in the super over and India won the match.
Impact of All-rounders:
In recent times the impact of all-rounders in the Indian team has been clear and very important. Be it Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya’s performance in the T20 WC, Washington Sundar and Riyan Parag’s performance in the recently concluded India vs Sri Lanka series or the impact of star Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja that we have seen over the years and even Ravichandran Ashwin’s last 2 ball batting against Pakistan in the 2022 T20I WC, that helped India win the last ball thriller. Yuvraj Singh’s all-round performance in the 2011 ODI WC is an excellent example of All-rounder’s importance in the team.
In the 2011 ODI WC, Yuvraj Singh’s impact in winning the WC was most he played 8 innings in 9 matches and scored 362 at the average of 90.50 he also took 15 wickets in the tournament and became the player of the tournament.
Final two overs bowled by Surya and Rinku in the 3rd T20 vs SL, tell us how important it is for batsmen to know bowling, when the other bowlers are out of form a batter can step up a bowl some crucial overs like the last match. When everyone was expecting that Siraj will bowl the last over, Surya decided to bowl it himself which was a surprise not only for fans but the SL batters too.
Since Rinku and Surya haven’t bowled ever in the T20I the SL batsmen were not aware of at what line, length or variation they are going to bowl, which helped India win the match.
It’s not always the batsmen or bowlers who win matches, it’s the all-rounders and part-time bowlers too. Baller knowing batting and batsmen knowing bowling is always useful.