Suryakumar Yadav in action during India vs Hong Kong group match in Asia Cup 2022 in Dubai on Wednesday. AP
Suryakumar Yadav showed no mercy to minnows Hong Kong on Sunday as the 31-year-old Indian batter shot 26 runs in the final over to take his side to a 192/2 in 20 overs in their second group game of the Asia Cup 2022 in Dubai.
Yadav finished his innings at 68 not out of 26 deliveries while striking at a rate of 261.54. The worst of it was bored by young medium pacer Haroon Arshad (0/53 in 3 overs), who was clobbered for four sixes in the final over of the match.
The 22-year-old inexperienced bowler did invite trouble early on as his line length was there for the taking. He bowled a full toss at Surya outside off-stump in the first ball and the Indian batter swung it over sweeper cover for a six.
The pacer was probably looking for a wide yorker but bowled it full but wide outside off stump in the next ball, which was again reached by the Mumbai Indians batter for a six over deep extra cover. This maximum also helped Surya reached his half century in just 22 deliveries.
Arshad went straighter with his line of the next delivery and the batter made the most of it by swinging straight down the ground for a flat six into the sightscreen.
Arshad did came back stronger of the next delivery by bowling a slow bouncer to surprise SKY but bowled it back of the length in the fifth ball for the batter to scoop-pull it over the fine leg boundary for the fourth and final six of the over.
Haroon managed to save further embarrassment by giving away two runs of the final delivery as he took pace off a length ball, which was lofted drive by Surya to long-on.
Among other valuable contributions during the game, Virat Kohli returned to form with a 44-ball 59 not out while openers Rohit Sharma (captain) and KL Rahul contributed 21 runs and 36 runs each. Hong Kong bowlers had little to celebrate on the day except for Ayush Shukla (1/29) as he took the prized scalp of the Indian skipper.
At the time of writing, Hong Kong were 57/2 in 8 overs while chasing 193.
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