He is 21. It was his debut match at the Indian Premier League. And he bowled at speed of 156.8kmph! Meet Mayank Yadav, the debutant pacer, who changed the game for Lucknow Super Giants as they scored their very first victory in this edition of the tournament in Lucknow on Saturday. Yadav, who took three wickets (Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh and Jitesh Sharma), yielded just 27 runs. He was declared ‘Player of the Match.’
The home team played a strategic T20 game with both bat and ball. Winning the toss, LSG’s stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran decided to bat first. The skipper along with Marcus Stoinis gave a solid ground for a good total. Stunning batting by Krunal Pandya during death overs propelled the home team to a good score of 199/8. While many said that the sluggish pitch at Ekana may hamper the chase, the blistering start by Punjab Kings batters proved everyone wrong.
The visitors were in complete commanding position with century on the board with the loss of any wicket. It was then that LSG unleashed the raw power of Mayank Yadav’s pace. The Delhi player first removed Jonny Bairstow. Second came Prabhsimran Singh. And in the 16th over, he got rid of Jitesh Sharma. This had damaged the pace of the run chase of Punjab Kings. Mohsin Khan finished the job by picking the next two crucial wickets – Shikhar Dhawan and Sam Curran.
Lucknow Super Giants vs Punjab Kings – Scorecard
Punjab Kings
- Shikhar Dhawan c de Kock b Mohsin Khan 70
- Jonny Bairstow c Stoinis b Mayank Yadav 42
- Prabhsimran Singh c Naveen-ul-Haq b Mayank Yadav 19
- Jitesh Sharma c Naveen-ul-Haq b Mayank Yadav 6
- Liam Livingstone not out 28
- Sam Curran c Pooran b Mohsin Khan 0
- Shashank Singh not out 9
- Extras: (lb-2, w-2) 4
- Total: 178/5 in 20 overs
- Fall of wickets: 102-1, 128-2, 139-3, 141-4, 141-5 Bowling: Manimaran Siddharth 2-0-21-0, Naveen-ul-Haq 4-0-43-0, Mohsin Khan 4-0-34-2, Krunal Pandya 3-0-26-0, Ravi Bishnoi 3-0-25-0, Mayank Yadav 4-0-27-3.
Lucknow Super Giants:
- Quinton de Kock c Jitesh b Arshdeep 54
- KL Rahul c Bairstow b Arshdeep 15
- Devdutt Padikkal c Dhawan b Curran 9
- Marcus Stoinis b Chahar 19
- Nicholas Pooran b Rabada 42
- Ayush Badoni c Bairstow b Curran 8
- Krunal Pandya (not out) 43
- Ravi Bishnoi c Tanay (sub) b Curran 0
- Mohsin Khan (run out) 2
- Naveen-ul-Haq (not out) 0
- Extras (B-1, LB-1, W-5) 7
- Total (8 wickets, 20 overs) 199
- Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-45, 3-78, 4-125, 5-146, 6-189, 7-189, 8-197.
- Bowling: Sam Curran 4-0-28-3, Arshdeep Singh 3-0-30-2, Kagiso Rabada 4-0-38-1, Rahul Chahar 3-0-42-1, Harpreet Brar 2-0-14-0, Harshal Patel 4-0-45-0.
(With PTI inputs)