IPL 2023: Have Bowled To Good Batters, But Sky Is Extraordinary, Says MI Pacer Akash Madhwal

Mumbai Indians' fast-bowler Akash Madhwal called Suryakumar Yadav an 'extraordinary' batter and believes the right-hander is the best batter he has ever bowled to in his cricketing career.

On Friday, Suryakumar scored his first IPL century, hitting 11 fours and six sixes in a jaw-dropping innings of 103 not out off 49 balls. He got to the triple-figure mark off the final ball of the innings by smashing a six to set the base for Mumbai's 27-run win over Gujarat Titans.

"Bowling to him is very difficult. I have bowled to pretty good batters but SKY happens to be someone extraordinary. The shots he practices in the nets come off as it is when he plays them on the field."

"So it is very difficult to bowl to him. Even in the practice matches, he pulls off these kinds of shots out of nowhere. The best thing about these shots as a bowler during practice matches is that they seem gorgeous. Haven't seen anyone bat like him yet," said Madhwal in the post-match press conference.

With the ball, Madhwal had an amazing night by picking three wickets for 31 runs as Gujarat were reduced to 55/5, and couldn't chase down 219 despite 79 not out from Rashid Khan. The Uttarakhand pacer revealed he was entrusted with the new-ball duties by skipper Rohit Sharma.

"My role before this match was to bowl the end overs but Rohit bhaiya informed me a day before the match that I will be bowling in the powerplay overs after seeing me in the nets. He asked me to be ready and when the opportunity arrived, thankfully, I was ready to grab it."

"It wasn't easy to bowl slower balls under such conditions so we stuck to the basics and thankfully, executed them pretty well. Our plan was pretty simple against Titans. We bowled with the intention of choking them for runs at the start. So I stuck to my strength which is bowling hard lengths throughout my spell of four overs," he added.

Also Read: IPL 2023 Points Table

Now at third place in the points table with 14 points in 12 games, Mumbai's next match in IPL 2023 will be against Lucknow Super Giants at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.