Usman Tariq walks in, stutters, pauses. His left leg dangles ahead. He’s staring at Suryakumar Yadav, trying to pick any cues from movement of feet.
Surya doesn’t move an inch.
This was the sixth delivery Surya faced, the first against Tariq. The stop-start spinner had taken much of the headspace of cricket watchers and even the Indian team before the game. Surya had himself mimicked Tariq’s pauses before release to train his teammates in the nets. So the contest was always going to be fascinating: Tariq versus the Tariq impersonator.
On a sluggish pitch where the ball gripped, with the big hitters around him—Ishan Kishan and Shivam Dube going bang-bang—Surya had set himself a different task. He wanted to bat deep. Nail the pacing. Not too adventurous that it risked a middle-order wobble. Not too restrained that it blunted the impact of the dream start from Ishan.
Tariq doesn’t just pause once—his pauses are elongated, stretched even, as he keeps his left leg dangling ahead. Surya was intimate with it, thanks to his mimicking effort. The trick here was simple for the batsman: he had to be absolutely still and not commit. Not even twitch. Because it’s so simple, it’s extremely difficult to do. Especially in this format where body positioning, predetermination, adrenaline all tend to drag a batsman into a blurry fast-forward mode. Every fibre primed to explode.
But against Tariq, all that has to be erased from the mind. Especially for the innings-building role Surya had set himself. The muscular and mental twitches to attack had to be leashed. Even if there are no cues to be read, Tariq makes the batsman wait, delay, stub out predetermination—and resultantly upsets the balance. Tariq achieves something unusual: he makes the batsman lose balance by forcing him to remain still.
Pull out that moment in the highlights package and watch, precisely at Over 10.1. Tariq pauses, trying to pick any cues. Anything that can make him change length, line, or even the nature of the ball. He can carrom-ball, he can deliver a googly, or off break.
Tariq doesn’t just pause once—his pauses are elongated, stretched even. Surya was intimate with it, thanks to his mimicking effort. (JioHotstar screengrab)
Surya remains statuesque. He stands there in his slightly open stance, bat raised. Twice there is a faint but perceptible twitch, first on the back foot and then on the front—as if he was curbing them from moving. In the bigger picture, he hasn’t moved an inch.
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It’s the carrom ball that lands around a length and straightens on the middle-and-off line. Surya only moves when the ball is almost about to land. A quick side shuffle to get into position, the careful press-down of the front foot to ensure it doesn’t get across and in the way, allowing his body to remain open. Then he punches the ball up and over wide midwicket, right between the gap between deep midwicket and long-on.
It’s one thing to be still. Another thing entirely to find that gap and place the ball ever so calmly. Tariq demands both of those traits from a batsman like Surya; else he would have to try biff it like a slogger. Surya wasn’t in the mood for that indulgence, at least not on Sunday night when he wanted to ensure he batted deep.
It’s a placement batsmen often use to push for a single between midwicket and mid-on. Surya simply extended it into a boundary. Javed Miandad was a master of that stroke. With his open stance, he would punch and shovel spinners into that pocket, sometimes leaning back on impact to generate power. Few have played it with such control and composure. Miandad did. Surya does.
There was a thought that had floated ahead of the tournament about India’s batting in this World Cup. Will they be so intent on going bang-bang all the time that they forget the innings-holding type of knock, especially in pressure games and difficult conditions? India are showing that they have Tilak Varma, who spoke about how his job was to “anchor,” and Suryakumar to construct and pace their innings according to the demands of the day.
No pause… just play! 😏@surya_14kumar welcomes Usman Tariq with a boundary. GAME ON! 🔛
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— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) February 15, 2026
Surya’s second such shot came on the first ball of the 18th over (17.1) against the spinner Abrar Ahmed. This one turning from a good length spot on middle-and-off. Yet again Surya waits for the ball to land and head toward its destination before he springs into action, pushing himself up on his toes to allow that springboard of power to shovel the ball up and over, finding the same gap as before.
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He fell to Tariq, who celebrated with panache, but even in that dismissal ball, Surya had done most things right. He had picked it was the slow googly, he did wait after moving across his stumps, but it was the fifth ball of the 19th over and it demanded a big shot from him but his lofted hit had to be directed towards the long part of the ground.
But by then, he had already unfurled two beautifully-skilled shots where art married commerce to fetch eight runs, but more importantly in sync with his innings-holding pattern. A captain’s knock, well and truly.
