Photo: Vipin Pawar/Sportzpics for BCCI/IPLT20.com

Suryakumar Yadav’s masterclass in the Indian Premier League helped Mumbai Indians maintain their position at the top of the points table after they beat Royal Challengers Bangalore in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

Chasing RCB’s 164/6, MI won the match by five wickets and five balls to spare. Suryakumar Yadav blazed an unbeaten 79 in just 43 balls with the help of 10 fours and 3 sixes and matched his highest score in IPL, which he managed earlier in the season against Rajasthan Royals.

Suryakumar Yadav, a title-winning captain in T20 Mumbai, walked in one-down in the sixth over and subsequently saw three more wickets fall as Mumbai Indians were down to 107/4 in the 14th over. MI needed another 58 runs in 37 balls at that stage.

“I was looking to finish games for a long time,” Suryakumar Yadav said. “I needed to know my game completely and just go out and do it. I have been doing meditation, spending time on myself and that helps me out in the middle. I worked on my game a lot during the lockdown.”

The meditation has been working for the 30-year-old. The Mumbai Indians batsman was already in flow, scoring 45 runs in just 27 balls at that stage. He forged a 51-run partnership with Hardik Pandya in just 30 balls and that took the game away from RCB.

“When we started the tournament, the team management and (captain) Rohit Sharma came to me and said 'you have played enough cricket now, it's high time now you take the game deep, and bat as long as possible; it provides a good platform for the team and even it will be good for yourself',” Suryakumar Yadav said. “So I badly wanted to do it and I'm very happy with that.”

A well deserved Man of the Match award for @surya_14kumar 👏👏#Dream11IPL pic.twitter.com/nOaDhol9Dt

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) October 28, 2020

Named man of the match for his efforts, Suryakumar Yadav scored at a strike rate of 183.72. His IPL 2020 strike rate so far has been 155.36.

“Imagine you have someone who bats at that strike rate, especially when you lose an early wicket because he comes at No. 3,” stand-in captain Kieron Pollard, who has the best strike rate in IPL 2020 so far, said.

“Time and time again, no matter the situation he continues to show the class of a player he is,” Pollard added. “He's done some amazing things for us as a franchise, and the most he can do is continue to let the bat talk and score more runs for us and take us all the way.

“To me, he just keeps getting better. If he continues to be this consistent then at some point in time, you are going to get rewarded. Nothing happens before its time, and long may it continue for us as a franchise,” Pollard said.

With 362 runs in 11 matches so far, Suryakumar Yadav is the second-highest run-scorer for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2020 so far. He has three fifties to his name and his batting average is 40.22.