How a hotel room chat and Suryakumar’s support helped Tilak Varma smash his maiden international century

Tilak Varma stole the limelight on Wednesday as Team India clinched the third T20I against South Africa at Centurion to take a 2-1 lead. Tilak Varma was the star performer with the bat in the first innings as he slammed his maiden international century , helping India post a mammoth total of 219/6 as they won by 11 runs.

One thing that helped Tilak Varma on his way to a 107-run knock was his promotion to the No.3 spot in the batting order. The interesting bit here is that it was Tilak Varma who initiated the conversation with skipper Suryakumar Yadav for a promotion in the batting order and later went on to deliver on his promise.

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Tilak Varma thanks Suryakumar after maiden hunred

After the victory at the SuperSport Park, India’s T20 captain Suryakumar revealed that Tilak Varma visited his hotel room after the three-wicket defeat in Gqeberha and requested a chance to bat at No.3. Thus, he took SKY’s spot in the batting lineup but delivered big time.

“He [Tilak] came to my room at Gqeberha and said, ‘Give me a chance at No. 3, I want to do well,’ and I said, ‘Go out there and express yourself.’ He asked for it and he delivered,” SKY shared.

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After scoring a century for India, Tilak Varma was proud and thanked Suryakumar for allowing him to express himself.

“I cannot put it in words. It was my dream to play for the country and the hundred came at the right time when the team needed it,” Tilak said at the post-match presentation ceremony. “All credit to Mr. Suryakumar Yadav, our captain. He gave me the opportunity to bat at 3 and told me to express myself. Thanks to him again. I just backed my basics. Pitch was two paced to start with and it wasn’t easy for the new batters coming in when Abhishek got out. I was ready to bat long and was waiting for one partnership.”

The maiden international century has given a new lease of life to Tilak Varma who had only scored 389 runs in 18 T20Is before the Centurion match.

SKY lauds execution from Indian batters

Suryakumar himself has not been in good form, scoring 21, 4, and 1 in the last three T20Is, but was a satisfied captain seeing how his players executed the team plans. Team India kept losing wickets but did not sacrifice their aggressive batting which eventually led to a match-winning 200+ total.

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Apart from Tilak, the second-highest score was that of 50 from 25 balls by Abhishek Sharma followed by 18 off 16 balls from Hardik Pandya and 15 off 6 balls from debutant Ramandeep Singh.

“Very happy. What we spoke about in the team meeting, we played the brand of cricket we discussed. That’s what we have been telling them to do,” Suryakumar said.

He added that the execution of the attacking intent by Indian players is laudable. “Aggression and intent is always not about talking. They have made my job easier when I see them bat like that.”

The fourth and final T20I of the series will be played in Johannesburg on 15 November (Friday).