Unlike many, Yash Thakur quite enjoys shouldering the burden of expectations. So when his Lucknow Supergiants skipper KL Rahul saw his match-winner after Mayank Yadav’s injury, the young pacer gained momentum to take five wickets for the first time in the IPL. The spotlight was firmly on the 25-year-old from Vidarbha after speedster Yadav left the field with a side strain during Sunday night’s match against Gujarat Titans. Thakur returned figures of 5/30, including the wicket of GT captain Shubman Gill.

It was his first five-wicket haul in the IPL, helping his team beat the Gujarat Titans by 33 runs, besides earning him the Man of the Match honours.

“Mayank is a phenomenal player and his pace is… I know my limitations and I know my strengths and I only support my strengths,” Thakur said of his teammate. The fastest delivery bowled in this IPL.

Giving an update on Yadav, Thakur said his now-famous teammate is doing well.

“There’s nothing to worry about. Everything is fine,” he said.

Thakur, who wanted to be a wicketkeeper at the beginning of his cricket career, attributes his match-winning success to Rahul’s support.

“After Mayank left the field, (KL) Rahul bhai just said ‘maybe this is your day and you can win the game for us’.

“He said, ‘Don’t think too much, have confidence in yourself’. He said we will only focus on controllable factors and not waste time on external factors, such as who happened to whom,” he revealed.

“I don’t worry about the pressure of expectations. On the contrary, I get happy when the outside world or my team expects me to win games. I enjoy the responsibility of winning games for the team,” said Thakur, who changed his The way he bowled, bowling some slower pitches and bouncers to confuse the batsmen, ultimately brought him success.

“We knew the wickets were slow, so the plan we discussed, we stuck to it. Even if we got hit because of runs, we stuck to it (the plan). KL told us we would be successful.

Thakur added: “The variety of variations that I use, the slower variations, and the bouncers that I use, I keep having success.”

GT’s Vijay Shankar laments lack of collective effort

Looking back on the defeat, Gujarat Titans all-rounder Vijay Shankar admitted that lack of collective effort was hurting the Shubman Gill-led side.

Shankar was one of the underwhelming players, scoring just 17 out of the team’s total of 130 games against a target of 163.

“We played very well as a team last game (against Kings XI Punjab, scoring 199) and we bowled very well this game (restricting LSG). Sometimes it’s just a collective thing.

“When we come together in a game, we start winning games. That’s what we have missed in the last two games,” Shankar said at the post-match press conference.

“We are trying our best. This is not the end of the road for us; this is a very long game,” he added.

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