Israeli mentalist Lior Suchard correctly predicted result of India-Australia T20

Mumbai: Lior Suchard, the renowned mentalist from Israel (now in Australia for shows) had correctly predicted the result of Sunday's Australia-India Twenty20 match, which India won by seven wickets.

And believe it or not, 12-hours before the commencement of the match in Sydney, he had predicted the scores of both teams (in a sealed envelope) as Australia : 197 runs (five wickets) and India 200 runs (five wickets).

MS Dhoni-led Indian side won the match by seven wickets though.

“There was a minor variation to the correct score which I’m actually really happy about. It shows that it was real and that I didn’t cheat or trick people by only writing in the envelope later. What I do is very complex but also very challenging, so even I was excited when I saw what the score was because my hard work, my concentration and most importantly, what I have been working for my whole life proved to be so close to it being accurate. I was very happy, and I was happy to see so many people as excited as me," he said.

The envelope was closely guarded on the entire day of the match by Today Show Sports reporter Yvonne Simpson host. No one has touched this envelope before she presented it to the commentary team of Ian Healy, Michael Slater, Michael Hussey and Mark Nicholas at the end of the game.

When asked whether he can influence the captain to win the toss or the match, Suchard said,

As a mentalist I am able to understand and influence people, but I didn’t influence the captains or the teams to win the toss or the match. They did their job, played cricket, and I did mine. I used my mentalism to predict the score. I wrote the score down in an envelope at about 8am the morning of the match. So, I’d done my job long before the teams even got to the Sydney Cricket Ground. There was no way I could influence anything from there."

"Mentalism isn’t just about reading faces or speaking to people one-on-one. I can actually influence people over the phone, without ever seeing them. My ability to predict the score wasn’t based on the team members but my ability to focus," he added.

Suchard has visited India in the past but is unlikely to be present during the World T20 2016 t be played in March-April.

"I won’t be in India during the event although I will keep updated on social media," he said.

"I’m not sure who will win. I haven’t predicted things for a long time. The last sport event I predicted was an NBA game about 7 years ago. It’s not something I regularly do, but when I came to Australia I wanted to do something really crazy, and I know how big cricket is so I knew this game would be perfect," he added further.

"Mentalism isn’t just about reading faces or speaking to people one-on-one – I can actually influence people over the phone, without ever seeing them. My ability to predict the score wasn’t based on the team members but my ability to focus."

Interestingly, the "mind-reader" did a few tricks on Steve Waugh during his recent trip to Australia.

"Steve Waugh is a friend of mine. He is really great, you know. I did a few experiments on him when I first arrived in Australia and I think he was a bit scared at first. But now he is used to it and he is a great person to know in Australia," Suchard concluded.