India discovered a new fast bowling star in Mayank Yadav (3/27) with a stunning performance as Lucknow Super Giants defeated Punjab Kings by 21 runs in the IPL on Saturday. Speed steals the show.
A late blitz by floater Krunal Pandya, who was asked to bat first, gave LSG a competitive score of 199/8.
In the opener, Quinton de Kock top-scored for LSG with a 38-ball 54, but stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran’s 21-ball 42 helped the team in the middle innings. energized the game.
Krunal scored at a strike rate of 200 after two sixes and four boundaries to finish with a 22-ball 43 to give the team an extra cushion.
This total proved to be enough for LSG, who earned their first win of this IPL thanks to Mayank’s performance. Punjab ended up with a score of 178/5, with Liam Livingstone missing the game due to injury.
In the 12th over of Punjab’s innings, Mayank bowled the fastest ball of the tournament at a speed of 155.8 kmph.
It was Mayank’s blazing pace that unsettled Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh and Jitesh Sharma and led to their downfall. In his four races, he consistently clocked 150 and above on the speedometer, making him the hero of the night.
This was after the opening combination of Shikhar Dhawan (70 off 50 balls) and Bairstow (42 off 29 balls) soon found themselves looking very fit to bat. Surface, both got some boundaries to get the ball rolling.
PBKS skipper Dhawan made a statement of sorts when he swept M Siddharth past backward point.
Owing to the way they attacked, PBKS went on to score 61 runs without conceding any points in the powerplay and Dhawan also continued in the same vein with the help of Ravi Bishnoi Next, the highest score was obtained at 50 points.
Bairstow was equally predatory, hitting Krunal Pandya twice in a row as the visitors crossed 100 in the 11th over.
Bishnoi restricted PBKS’ scoring to just three runs with a tight 11th over, which forced Bairstow to chase Mayank, but the batsman made a mistake and ended up throwing away his wicket. This was the fast bowler’s first IPL wicket.
Prabhsimran, who scored 19 off 7 balls, then became Mayank’s second victim.
Dhawan struggled to keep his team in the game but PBKS could not keep up with the pace required and soon the Punjab captain also succumbed to the pressure with Jitesh failing to cope with Mayank’s extra pace.
Earlier, De Kock got LSG’s game on the line with a brilliant break from midfield.
KL Rahul, who came into the game as an ‘influence player’ after handing over the leadership responsibilities to Nicholas Pooran, tried to play Kagiso Rabada behind the leg side but did not look convincing.
Harshal Patel came in from long off and made a valiant attempt to grab the ball, but Rahul was lucky as the fielder couldn’t complete the blinding he should have done.
At the other end, de Kock scored four runs when he bowled Rabada over the edge in his first delivery against the South African pacer.
Next, de Kock did one better as he opened up the face of the bat and hit Rabada over the backward point boundary for a six.
Rahul pushed Arshdeep Singh to the ground and then smashed another delivery in a similar fashion but that earned him four runs.
However, Arshdeep got his revenge when the left-arm seamer had the LSG batsman caught at the back by Jonny Bairstow for a nine-ball 15.
Devdutt Padikkal got two boundaries before being dismissed by Sam Curran (3/28).
Marcus Stoinis (19) hit two sixes before being bowled by Rahul Chahar as he tried to bowl the ball to the side.
This brought Pooran into the middle and the West Indian was soon in the groove, hitting Chahal for two sixes and a four to take a 20-run lead which gave LSG a run for their money The rate brought much-needed momentum.
De Kock, meanwhile, hit a half-century off 34 balls but a strategic pause broke LSG’s momentum when South Africa’s left-handed batsman Arshdeep’s short delivery caught wicketkeeper Jitesh. Jitesh Sharma takes the ball easily.
Pooran kept the scoreboard at a good pace until he dragged Rabada’s delivery to the stumps, a heavy blow to LSG at the crucial moment.
Newcomer Krunal Pandya wasted no time settling in and brilliantly delivered Rabada’s short pass over midfield for maximum points. Curran bowled a tight 17th to halt LSG’s charge but Krunal got a series of boundaries to support LSG.
(with PTI input)
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