LSG’s pace card

PTI

Lucknow, March 30

India unearthed a new fast-bowling star in Mayank Yadav who stole the limelight with his searing pace amid the usual flurry of monstrous hits as Lucknow Super Giants humbled Punjab Kings by 21 runs in the IPL here today.

155.8

Mayank Yadav’s fiery spell saw him clock the fastest ball of the ongoing season and fifth overall

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I’ve always heard from others there’s nervousness in debuts but that goes away after the first ball. Plan was to not be under too much pressure and to bowl at the stumps and use the pace as much as possible.

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Mayank Yadav, player of the match

Mayank bowled really well. His pace outsmarted us. It was nice facing him, surprised me with that pace. Knew as an experienced player I’d use it. But he figured it out and bowled yorkers to keep me down to a dot and a single. Shikhar Dhawan, punjab kings’ captain

Asked to bat first, opener Quinton de Kock top-scored for LSG with a 38-ball 54 but it was stand-in skipper Nicholas Pooran’s 21-ball 42, which injected life into his team’s innings in the middle overs. Then, floater Krunal Pandya’s late blitz, on the back of two sixes, four boundaries and at a strike-rate of 200 allowed him to finish on a 22-ball 43 and give his side the much-needed cushion with the scorebaoard reading 199/8.

The total proved to be enough for LSG, who registered their first win of this IPL, thanks to Mayank’s exploits. Punjab, who ended at 178/5, missed Liam Livingstone’s service as he was injured.

In the 12th over of Punjab’s innings, Mayank bowled the tournament’s fastest ball at 155.8 km/h.

It was Mayank’s extra pace that rattled Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh and Jitesh Sharma and led to their downfall. He consistently clocked 150 and above on the speedometer during his four-over spell, emerging as the night’s hero.

This was after the dashing opening combo of Shikhar Dhawan (70 off 50 balls) and Bairstow (42 off 29 balls) quickly got the measure of what looked like a very good surface for batting, both getting a few boundaries to set the ball rolling.

PBKS skipper Dhawan made a statement of sorts when he reverse-swept M Siddharth over backward point. Thanks to their attacking approach, PBKS raced to 61/0 in the powerplay and continued in the same vein with Dhawan bringing up his fifty with a six off Ravi Bishnoi.

Bairstow was equally marauding and struck Krunal for two successive sixes as the visitors crossed 100 in the 11th over.

Bishnoi put the brakes on PBKS’ scoring with a tight 11th over, giving away just three runs, and that forced Bairstow to go after Mayank but the batter miscued and ended up throwing away his wicket. It was the fast bowler’s maiden IPL wicket.

Prabhsimran blazed away to a seven-ball 19 before becoming Mayank’s second victim.

Dhawan tried hard to keep his team in the game, but PBKS could not keep up with the asking rate.

Brief scores: Lucknow Super Giants: 199/8 in 20 overs (de Kock 54, Pooran 42, Krunal 43; Curran 3/28 Arshdeep 2/30); Punjab Kings: 178/5 in 20 overs overs (Dhawan 70, Bairstow 42; Mayank 3/27, Mohsin 2/34).

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