Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) unearthed a star, Mayank Yadav, in the 11th match of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) against Punjab Kings on Saturday (March 30). The young tearaway fast bowler clocked 150+ speeds constantly during his four-over spell and stunned the opposition batters. In fact, Mayank also delivered a stunning 155.8 kph thunderbolt to Shikhar Dhawan in the 12th over of the innings.
The latter tried to slash away the ball using its pace but missed it courtesy Mayank’s speed. It was certainly not a one-off instance of the 21-year-old troubling the batters with his pace. Nine of his 24 deliveries clocked more than 150 kph while rest of them were mostly around 145-150.
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Who is Mayank Yadav?
On his debut, Mayank made a match-winning impact for the Super Giants as he ended up winning the player of the match award for returning with figures of 3/27. When he was introduced into the bowling attack, the Kings were spot on in the 200-run chase scoring 88/0 in nine overs.
But by the time, Mayank picked up the first three wickets to fall in the innings sending back dangerous players like Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh and Jitesh Sharma. All three batters were hurried with the pace and by the time he finished his spell, PBKS’ chase was disturbed and they needed almost 15 runs per over.
Punjab Kings eventually lost the match by 21 runs and certainly, Mayank’s spell made the difference deservedly winning the man of the match award in the end. The youngster admitted after the match that he was nervous and never thought would put in such a good show in his very first IPL match.
“Never thought it would be such a good debut. Was nervous before the match. Tried to stick to my pace and aim at the stumps. Was thinking about using slower ones initially, but stuck to the quick ones. First wicket (Bairstow) was special. It's good to debut at such a young age. Had a few goals, but can't help if injuries come in the way,” he said in the post-match presentation.
LSG captain for the game, Nicholas Pooran too was all praise of Mayank Yadav highlighting how important IPL has been for local players like him over the years. “Mayank's was the story of the night.That was an inspiring performance, he (Mayank) is a young guy. He showed the entire world how good he is. He is not only fast, but also is accurate. It's the beauty of the IPL, gives the local players to perform,” Pooran said.
As far as Mayank’s career is concerned, he has already played 17 List A matches and this was his 11th T20 game apart from representing Delhi in a solitary first-class encounter. He has accounted for 34 wickets in the 50-over format so far and picked 15 wickets in the shortest format of the game too. Mayank will now be keen on continuing to perform well for his side in the upcoming games.
