Watch: Axar Patel teases Suryakumar Yadav for 'bluffing' Virat Kohli during match-winning knock against Afghanistan
Published - 21 Jun 2024, 08:04 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 01:14 AM
Suryakumar Yadav, on Thursday (June 21), delivered a Player of the Match performance as India beat Afghanistan by 47 runs in the first Super 8 game of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2024.
The Men in Blue were in a spot of bother after losing captain Rohit Sharma inside the powerplay before the likes of Rishabh Pant (20), Virat Kohli (24) and Shivam Dube (10) failed to score big as well. However, Suryakumar Yadav stood firm at one end and scored a brilliant fifty to help India recover from 62 for 3 and post a competitive total of 181 for 8 on a tough batting pitch.
On a pitch where batters from both teams struggled to time the ball, the world number one T20I batsman scored his runs at a strike rate of almost 190. He scored 53 runs off 28 balls with the help of 5 fours and 3 sixes. Chasing 181, Afghanistan were bowled out for a modest total of 134 runs. For India, Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh picked up 3 wickets each.
Suryakumar Yadav's candid chat with Axar Patel:
After the win over Afghanistan, India teammates Suryakumar Yadav and Axar Patel had a candid chat with each other. The video of the conversation was posted on social media by the BCCI. During the conversation, Axar Patel tried to pull his teammate's legs with a humorous question.
Axar Patel asked the India batting star about the moment in the game when Virat Kohli was giving him some batting advice. The India allrounder asked his teammate whether he "bluffed" Kohli and decided to play aggressively on a tough pitch.
"We had a break in 10th over, and I heard Virat bhai say something. What was that? Because as soon as you went back (to the field), you started hitting slog-sweep and all," Axar asked.
In reply, Suryakumar said: "Actually, 160 looked a par-score on this wicket. It was hard batting at first. But then, I thought if I started with a strong momentum after the break and hit a couple of boundaries, it would be easy for us and the new batters coming in as well."
Axar then playfully said: "That means you bluffed Virat bhai!"
Axar's reply left Suryakumar in splits before he said: "No, no, I didn't bluff! I was just being myself!"
Team India will be in action next on Saturday (June 22) when they take on Bangladesh. A win over Bangladesh will all but seal India's passage to the semifinals.
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