‘Hold Suryakumar’s legs…’: Zaheer Khan says ‘almost impossible’ to stop MI star

Former India pacer Zaheer Khan said the only way to stop an on-song Suryakumar Yadav is to “hold his bat” from behind or “hold his legs”.

Suryakumar was at his sensational best once again, smashing 83 off 35 balls with as many as six sixes and seven fours as Mumbai Indians beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Wankhede Stadium on a humid Tuesday night. The victory helped MI to storm into the top three of IPL 2023 points table.

JioCinema expert Zaheer Khan couldn’t believe the ease with which Suryakumar Yadav dominated proceedings, saying: “They need to hold his bat from behind or hold his legs, he’s been batting like that. There was a tough phase but when he found his rhythm, the good became even better. This will never be good news for the bowlers.”

Zaheer, who has worked with SKY as part of the MI support staff, said it is almost impossible to set a field to the right-hander when he is in that sort of form.

“The way he bats and the way he approaches it, no field placement can help them. Every time I see them play, it seems like the bowlers are trying to bowl outside the off-stump, pack the side with four players, and SKY is still hitting fours and you cannot stop this,” added the former India paceman.

Set a challenging target of 200 for victory, MI smashed records to reach home in 16.3 overs with six wickets in the tank. Nehal Wadhera, too, delivered a superb performance with the bat, hitting an unbeaten 52 off 34 balls. His knock was laced with four boundaries and three sixes. Earlier, RCB had done well to reach 199/6, thanks largely to skipper Faf du Plessis’ 65 (41b, 5×4, 3×6) and Glenn Maxwell’s 68 (33b, 8×4, 4×6).

The win took MI to 12 points from 11 games and they now lie in the third place in the 10-team table. On the other hand, RCB are in the 7th place with 10 points from 11 games, and the race to the play-offs is hotting up.