Mumbai, April 27 Mumbai Indians' superstar batter Suryakumar Yadav on Sunday became the second fastest to reach 4000 runs by balls faced in the Indian Premier League (IPL), achieving the feat in Match 45 against Lucknow Super Giants at the Wankhede Stadium here.
Coming to bat with Mumbai Indians at 88/2, Suryakumar hammered spinner Ravi Bishnoi for a six, followed by back-to-back boundaries and also sent Avesh Khan to the boundary as he completed his 4000 runs in IPL.
His 4000 runs came from 2714 deliveries, and he is the second fastest in the list, topped jointly by Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers, both of whom reached the milestone off identical 2658 balls. Former Australia opener David Warner scored his 4000 runs off 2809 balls, while Chennai Super Kings legend Suresh Raina reached the mark off 2886 balls. They make up the top five in the list.
He had struck his first boundary of the afternoon against the express pace of Mayank Yadav and his first six of the day against Bishnoi over deep midwicket in the 11th over.
His brilliant six off Prince Yadav in the 15th over was his best shot of the day as he got down to a knee off a length ball outside off and hooked it over deep fine leg.
Suryakumar, who has modelled his batting style into a 360-degree player just like the South African legend De Villiers, reached his 50 off 27 balls, hitting four fours and four sixes. He got out on the next ball, mistiming to extra cover a fullish ball bowled wide.
But his fine knock on Sunday did enough to get him the Orange Cap with 417 runs from 10 matches, at an average of 69.50 and a strike rate of 170.20.
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