MATCH STORIES
Follow UsImagine casually holding on to a beast of a fast bowler who can clock 150 kph, for three seasons, and randomly unleashing him one fine night, without any warning.
Well, that is precisely what Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have just done.
Two years ago, at the Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction in 2022, LSG bought a then 19-year-old Mayank Yadav for his base price of 20 lakh.
In Mayank’s own words, it was Delhi Capitals (DC) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) who contacted him after being impressed by his trial, but at the auction table, it was LSG who made the sole bid for him, that too in the accelerated auction.
For three years, LSG slow-cooked him, opting to work with the youngster behind the scenes without exposing him to the league. But on March 30 (Saturday), the franchise finally decided that Mayank was finally ready to wreak havoc.
What unfolded was one of the most memorable debuts in the tournament’s history as the 21-year-old tearaway from Delhi bowled ABSOLUTE ROCKETS to single-handedly turn the contest in LSG’s favour, and secure his side two points.
We’ll get to his spell, but first, some backstory.
Mayank has not come out of nowhere. The 21-year-old has been a regular in white-ball cricket for Delhi over the past 18 months and has had an outstanding start to his domestic career.
He’s picked 34 wickets in the 17 List A games he’s played and was the joint second-highest wicket-taker in the Deodhar Trophy last year.
He also has an enviable T20 record — 12 wickets in 9 innings at an E.R of 6.44 — and a few months ago, he was all over the news during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT). Not due to the number of wickets he picked but the speeds that he was clocking. SMAT 2023 saw Mayank consistently touch the 150 kph mark.
In a game against Punjab, he even touched the 155 kph mark, according to the speed gun.
Pacers clocking such outrageous speeds in domestic cricket is not unheard of. But never has a young Indian speedster come to the IPL and clocked a high speed of 155.8 kph ON DEBUT while averaging 148 clicks.
At the Ekana Cricket Stadium, Mayank did something that’s never been done before, and will probably likely not be eclipsed for a very long time.
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A score of 199/8 is enough on most days in Lucknow but at 88/0 after 9 overs, the Punjab Kings openers were threatening to run away with the chase. Shikhar Dhawan was batting like a dream, and Jonny Bairstow was connecting 'em as well as he has in this competition in a couple of years. The writing seemed to be on the wall for LSG.
It is at this point that Mayank Yadav, on debut, came in and single-handedly changed the course of the contest.
Mayank’s first over in the IPL cost 10 runs but, despite being expensive, the young tearaway set the tone for what was about to come in his first six balls itself.
He began his IPL career with a ball that read 147.1 clicks and clocked the 150 kph on just the third ball of his career, becoming the first Indian to breach the said barrier this season.
146.5 was the 21-year-old’s average speed in his very first over. And, astonishingly enough, it was the calm before the storm.
On the first ball of his second over, Mayank clocked 155.8 clicks to register the fastest ball of IPL 2024.
What followed after this point was absolute carnage.
It’s not uncommon for domestic batters to get bullied by raw pace, but here was Mayank Yadav, on debut, absolutely embarrassing two veterans in Dhawan and Bairstow with his raw speed.
He came in, bowled fast, bowled short and bowled close to the body. That is all he did. Ball after ball. There was no mystery or unpredictability about his bowling. Yet he was releasing the ball with such ferocity that both Dhawan and Bairstow were getting mauled, overwhelmed by the pace at which the ball was coming to them.
Dhawan survived the early onslaught but Bairstow did not. After uncomfortably fending at five balls, he perished to Mayank on the sixth ball he faced against the youngster. Dug into the surface with pace, Bairstow thought he had Mayank lined up, but he didn’t. He was done for pace and he got caught at deep mid-wicket.
Bairstow’s dismissal was a sign of things to come. Literally.
In walked Prabhsimran next, and he was welcomed with a 153 kph rocket. Two overs later, Prabhsimran somehow sliced the second ball he faced off Mayank for a six over third man, but the debutant eventually proved too hot to handle for the right-hander. On the very next ball, Mayank hammered one into the surface and boom, Prabhsimran departed. The Punjab man went for a pull but he was so late on it that he ended up getting caught at mid-on.
Two overs later, Jitesh Sharma, the incumbent Indian T20I wicket-keeper, suffered the same fate as Prabhsimran.
After being roughed up by a few quick and short ones, Jitesh decided that enough was enough and went for the glory hit to assert his authority. Jitesh connected his attempted ‘big hit’ relatively better but it didn’t matter anyway as he, too, got caught.
98/0 in 10 overs had turned into 140/3 in 16, and, just like that, the debutant had single-handedly changed the whole complexion of the match.
Mayank is, of course, not the first debutant to influence a match in such a manner but never has a player ever thrilled in the fashion he did.
Two weeks ago, LSG were dealt a huge blow when Mark Wood withdrew from IPL 2024. The franchise effectively lost an x-factor seamer but head coach Justin Langer was still bullish about his side’s chances, claiming that they had people who could cover for Wood’s absence. Shamar Joseph was a name that Langer took, but the former Australia coach also singled out Mayank Yadav, speaking of him in the same breath as Joseph and Wood.
"We also have Shamar Joseph, we have Mayank who bowls with very good pace. Hopefully, we can replace, not [Wood's] experience, but his pace with Shamar Joseph and Mayank. He'll be missed - of course he'll be missed, he's a world-class bowler - but this is the world we live in and we will adapt and we will be OK,” Langer said a fortnight ago.
If young Mayank’s debut is any evidence to go by, LSG will be more than OK.
