'Dono Mr 360 ek saath' - Fans react as AB de Villiers heaps praise on Suryakumar Yadav amid IPL 2023 exploits

Suryakumar Yadav, the standout batter for Mumbai Indians (MI), finally broke his long century drought in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Friday night against Gujarat Titans (GT), hitting a 49-ball unbroken century. After making his league debut on April 6, 2012, Suryakumar had to wait 4053 days for his first three-figure IPL score. In addition, this was the first century by a MI batter since 2014; the star batsman smashed 11 fours and six sixes on his way to his innings against the Titans at the Wankhede Stadium.

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Following his blistering knock in Mumbai, fans flooded Twitter, comparing him to IPL legend AB de Villiers. Notably, both batters are masters of knocking the ball all around the park, leading to the nickname 'Mr 360'. It is popularly believed that Suryakumar can be the next Mr 360 of IPL following the former's retirement.

'He looks undefeatable; what a joy to watch him play' – AB de Villiers on Suryakumar Yadav

AB de Villiers took to the micro-blogging site Twitter to express his views after Suryakumar Yadav's masterful knock. He wrote, "Suryakumar Yadav looks undefeatable. When he gets going, he literally eats the ball wherever he wants. It's an absolute joy to watch".

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As he hammered bowlers all around the field, Suryakumar lived up to his moniker of "Mr. 360" by putting them through their paces. The batter started out slowly, but by the conclusion of the eleventh over, he had 22 runs off 17 balls after adopting a conservative stance, especially while facing Noor Ahmed.

The hitter, however, hit a six in each of the following two overs (against Alzarri Joseph and Mohammed Shami), and after the 17th over of the innings, began a full-throttle attack. Before the final 18 deliveries of the inning, when the batter was on 53 off 34 deliveries, he hammered another 50 in just 15. In the 18th over, the Indian power hitter resumed his barrage of blows, hitting Mohit Sharma for 20 runs with three fours and a six. He then completed his first IPL century with a six off the final delivery of the innings.

Here’s how fans reacted:

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Meanwhile shakeel from slum :- suriya is no where to the dust of abd 🤣🤣

— Atul Sharma (@a__sharma2798) May 13, 2023

Eats the ball? Bodied Dhobi 😂🤣

— Cricket Crazy (@CrazyinCricket) May 13, 2023

Abd player of the decade nominee 😭😭😭

— Momito kumar (@KumarMomito) May 13, 2023

All players enjoy each other success but coz of some chutiya bots there is unnecessary hate on this app

— Skanda (@skandy0410) May 13, 2023

Shubman Gang on seeing this comment made by ABD. "Surya Kumar Yadav paid ABD lots of money to make this statement". 🤡😂

— Troll cricket unlimitedd (@TUnlimitedd) May 13, 2023

He still ain't 10% of AB though. Class player but Ab was on another stratosphere.

— MG (@ManeeshGiri_) May 13, 2023

WTH - SKY eats the Ball

Means like this 👇 pic.twitter.com/dVs01p8dBt

— KhabriBhai (@RealKhabriBhai) May 13, 2023

It was the same with AB DeVilliers pic.twitter.com/5P3IHHE3uq

— Dr Nikhil Jain (@iamMarketWiz) May 13, 2023