Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Mumbai Indians by seven wickets and that too with ease in the opening match of IPL 2015, courtesy some effortless hitting from KKR's new hitman and the newly appointed vice-captain of the side -- Suryakumar Yadav.
KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir lauded Yadav's performance and went on to say at the post match press conference that for him the right-hander is the man of the match. It was indeed some amazing hitting and Yadav showed a lot of maturity as he finished the match off for his side.
When Manish Pandey got out, KKR still needed 71 from the last eight overs and the target was just another number for Yadav as he was sending the ball out of the park quite easily.
In an interview with the official website of IPL, Yadav said: "I was being promoted up the order and given an opportunity by the captain and the support staff. As defending champions there was a lot of pressure on us as to how we will start this tournament.
"But, we have done well to come out winning our very first game. We were just calm throughout the game, because we knew it was our home game and we could handle the pressure pretty well."
Yadav showed a lot of character and calmness during his blistering knock of 46. When asked from where he had received that calmness, he lauded his skipper Gambhir and India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
"When it comes to calmness I look up to our captain Gautam Gambhir," he said. "Whenever he has been under pressure, he has always come up with stellar performances.
"He is the one who I have been watching over the last year.
"Secondly I look up to MS Dhoni. Whenever he has won games for India or the Chennai Super Kings, he has been very calm. These are two individuals I look up to when it comes to calmness."
KKR are set to take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday at the Eden Gardens in their second match of IPL 2015.
