‘Told Quinton de Kock that Suryakumar Yadav is a joke’: Mumbai Indians' Ryan Rickelton on SKY's freak six vs KKR

If you are Suryakumar Yadav, there's not a lot of incentive for you to walk out to bat when your team needs 26 off 55 balls. But then you decide to have some fun by scoring 27* off 9 balls. One of your two sixes makes jaws drop, and before they can pick it up, you hit three more fours and another six. MI Batter Suryakumar Yadav plays a shot during the IPL 2025 cricket match vs Kolkata Knight Riders in Mumbai.(PTI)

Suryakumar Yadav was not Mumbai Indians' top performer on Monday night against the Kolkata Knight Riders in an IPL 2025 match at the Wankhdede Stadium in Mumbai. When there was a young debutant (Ashwani Kumar) who dismissed Quinton de Kock, Ajinkya Rahane, Andre Russell and Manish Pandey to help your team bowl out the opposition for just 116 and then another young overseas recruit (Ryan Rickelton) blasted his maiden IPL fifty, you can't be.

But if you are Suryakumar Yadav, you somehow know how to capture the imagination of those watching. SKY hit Andre Russell for six of the second ball of his innings. It was a length delivery on the fifth stump. Most batters would have played it square of the wicket on the off-side, trying their best to beat the point field on either side, but not Surya. He took a big stride forward and transferred his upper body weight to the backfoot - yes, he can do that - and half flicked, half swept, half scooped the ball for a six over fine leg.

Let's be honest. He has done that many times in the IPL and for India, but such is the uniqueness of that shot: the difficulty level is so high and the success rate so low that you can't help but marvel at it every time.

'Suryakumar Yadav is a joke': Ryan Rickelton

Ryan Rickelton, on his debut season in the IPL, had the best seat in the house at the non-striker's end. In his unbeaten 62-run, he had played a few breathtaking shots himself, but by his own admission, he could never even dream of trying to bat like Surya as he is a "joke".

"I just said to Quinny (de Kock) that SKY (Surya) is a joke, stuff that I can’t do, stuff that I can’t dream of. He has played that shot many a time, I’m not going to try it but I’m glad that he is in our team," said the South African keeper-batter.

Just before hitting that six, Suryakumar entered the elite of most elite list of Indian T20 batters. He became only the fifth Indian to score more than 8000 runs in this format. The ones above him? Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina. Needless to say, Surya has the best strike rate among all of them.

Debutant Ashwani Kumar's 4 for 24 and Ryan Rickelton's unbeaten 62 handed Mumbai Indians a comfortable eight-wicket win. It was the five-time champions' first win in the 18th season after two straight losses. Opting to bowl, MI rode on Kumar's brilliant display with the ball to bundle out KKR for 116 before they chased down the target in 12.5 overs.

Left-arm pacer Kumar became the first Indian to take four wickets on an IPL debut and help restrict KKR, who were bowled out in 16.2 overs.

Angkrish Raghuvanshi top-scored for KKR with 26 off 16 balls.

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