Johannesburg, Dec 15 (IANS): After registering a huge 106-run win over South Africa in the third and final T20I, India skipper Suryakumar Yadav said his ankle is not that bad after it seemed like he rolled his ankle while fielding, and added that it felt good on scoring his fourth century in the format.
At the Wanderers on Thursday night, Suryakumar smashed a delightful century off just 55 balls, smashing seven fours and eight sixes at a strike-rate of 178.57. With his fourth T20I century, Suryakumar, the top-ranked batter in the format, went level with Rohit Sharma and Glenn Maxwell for most centuries by a male batter in the shorter format of the game.
"I'm good, and it (the ankle) is not looking that bad. I am walking, so it's all good. It's always a good feeling to get to a triple-figure (score) in a T20 game. When it comes in a winning cause for the team, I'm more than happy doing that," he said after picking Player of the Match and Player of the Series awards.
Suryakumar was on 27 runs off 25 balls at one point, before taking the attack to South Africa in the second half of the innings by smashing 73 runs in just next 31 balls. The onslaught began in the 13th over when he smashed three sixes and a four off Andile Phehlukwayo.
"It's important to know your game really well - what you can do for your team - and I've thought the same thing. Whatever the situation is, I just go out there and enjoy myself. If it's my day or if it's not my day... that balance is very important in life and I really enjoyed it," he added.
Though Suryakumar didn’t field after the ankle injury, it didn’t cause India much trouble as birthday boy Kuldeep Yadav annihilated South Africa batters by taking career-best figures of 5-17 in 2.5 overs.
“He wanted to play some fearless brand of cricket. The idea was to bat first, put some runs on the board and defend. The boys work day in and day out. Happy that they showed some character. He (Kuldeep) is never happy. He is always hungry. It is a nice self gift on his birthday,” added Suryakumar.
After being skittled for 95 in 13.5 overs, South Africa captain Aiden Markram felt the total was chaseable. “Wasn't too unhappy with chasing 200. Felt we could have chased it down. Was chaseable. It was slightly on the lower side. When we were fielding, it seemed batters could hit it everywhere. Would have been nice to do better. There are some positives that we can take forward. Couple of good things and couple of things we can work on.”