SKY's the limit for India as skipper roars in World Cup

Suryakumar Yadav has delivered the first Indian masterclass -- and rescue act -- of the T20 World Cup to help dig the tournament favourites and co-hosts out of an embarrassing hole before they eased to a 29-run victory in their opening match against the USA.

The massive outsiders were giving their illustrious hosts a real scare on Saturday at Mumbai’s shocked Wankhede Stadium as they reduced them to a limping 6-77.

The Indians were still struggling at 7-118 with just 3.2 overs remaining -- and it could have been worse if catches hadn’t been spilled -- until Yadav, the man the nation knows as SKY, produced his extraordinary finishing tour de force.

Having gone reasonably sedately to that point as he sought to stabilise the team after their woeful start, he began to tee off as only he knows how, with a series of incredible strokes somehow dug out from way outside the offstump as he tumbled over and still finding the legside boundary.

From being 36no off 31 balls in the 16th over, the skipper went into overdrive, hitting another 48 off the next 18 to finish on a glorious unbeaten 84, with his side having recovered their poise to reach 9-161. Alarm over.

On a pitch that proved more tricky than had been suspected, the Americans soon succumbed in the chase, struggling against the pace of Arshdeep Singh (2-18 off four overs) and Mohammed Siraj (3-29) before eventually finishing on 8-132.

“Only I can tell how much pressure I was feeling,” player-of-the-match Yadav noted afterwards. “But I had the belief. I knew if I bat ‘til the end, I can make a difference.”

“It was a little different wicket. But we cannot brush everything under ‌the carpet. Could have batted better and smarter - we need to bat much better.”

Indeed, the 35-year-old Yadav, a local Mumbai hero, really did spare his side’s blushes after US captain Monank Patel’s decision to insert India had the crowd rubbing their hands in glee, expecting a cascade of fours and sixes.

Instead, they were left a bit shell-shocked as a procession of India’s top-order superstars were quickly sent packing, starting with Abhishek Sharma, the world’s number one T20 batter, falling for a first-ball duck, slapping Ali Khan straight to deep cover.

Then veteran South African-born allrounder Shadley van Schalkwyk came to the party, taking three wickets in five deliveries of the final powerplay over to leave India reeling on 4-46.

Ishan Kishan (20) and Tilak Varma (25) ‌both fell to van Schalkwyk while the dangerous Shivam Dube, like Sharma, departed for a golden duck.

Rinku Singh (six), Hardik Pandya (five) and Axar Patel (14) tried to swing their way out of trouble but losing their heads meant only losing their wickets, and soon it was down to Yadav to deliver.

He reached his 50 off 36 balls and ended up taking 21 runs from the final over bowled by Saurabh Netravalkar with more of his extraordinary invention.

Siraj (3-29) soon vindicated his inclusion with an early two-wicket burst as the US slumped to 3-31 in the poweplay, and though Sanjay Krishnamurthi (37) and Milind Kumar (34) did their best with a 58-run stand, India were always in charge.

“I thought our bowlers did a good job,” the USA’s India-born captain Patel said.

“We dropped catches and that cost us. At one stage, felt we could restrict them for 130.”