IND vs SA 2nd T20I: KL Rahul ‘surprised’ to get Player of the Match award, feels Suryakumar Yadav deserved it

Team India vice-captain KL Rahul was left ‘surprised’ after he was adjudged the Player of the Match in the 2nd of a three-match T20I series against South Africa in Guwahati on Sunday. Rahul asserted that Suryakumar Yadav was the right person to get the award for his fiery innings. Notably, opener KL Rahul made an eye-pleasing 57 off 28 balls, laced with five fours and four sixes, to set the foundation for 237/3. However, it was Suryakumar who went berserk after walking in at no. 4 as he smashed 61 off just 22 balls, which included 5 fours and as many sixes, to power India towards a mammoth score. “I am surprised I am getting the Man-of-the-Match award, Surya should have gotten it. He changed the game. Having batted in the middle order, I have realised that it is difficult. DK doesn’t always get too many balls to face, and he was phenomenal, and so were Surya and Virat,” said Rahul in the post-match presentation ceremony. Meanwhile, Rahul also said that the team has been making an effort to get 20-30 more runs than the par score since last one year or so. “That effort (to get 20-30 more runs than par score) has been there since the last 10-12 months, since the last world cup. It is something we are trying to do consciously as a team. We have done it a lot of times, whenever we got the opportunity to do so,” said Rahul in a post-match press conference. On his innings with a strike rate of over 200, KL said that the team has been trying to be aggressive and risk-taking while batting first and it was needed from him during the match to score fast. Questioned on Team India’s death bowling woes, the batter said that there are a lot of things the team needs to get better at. “Before the World Cup, you would want to experiment and see what works for a certain player/certain team. These are great opportunities for teams to experiment. A win is a win, but we will take that, but there is still a lot to learn for bowlers, and scope to get better. Previously, bowlers gave only 106 runs in the first T20I. And today we gave away 221. You have to take conditions in mind. It was hot, humid, and extremely hard for bowlers to make a grip on the ball. Also, a batter is also trying to smash you on every ball while chasing 238, so it becomes extremely hard for bowlers to execute their plans,” he added.