Mayank Yadav stole the limelight with his pace on his Indian Premier League debut at Ekana Cricket Stadium on Saturday. Lucknow Super Giants' new pace bowler clocked 155.8 kph to register the fastest delivery of the IPL 2024 season in the game against Punjab Kings.
The 21-year-old Delhi-born pacer has already made his name in domestic cricket with impressive pace and control and displayed his potential on the biggest stage in his first IPL match. He clocked 150 kph in his first over and then shocked everyone by reaching 155.8 kph on the first delivery of his second over to Shikhar Dhawan, the fastest ball of the 2024 season.
Mayank further made an impact by giving Lucknow Super Giants a breakthrough with Jonny Bairstow's big wicket. He also scalped wickets of Jitesh Sharma and Prabhsimran Singh to get LSG back in the game who were defending 199 runs against PBKS.
Meanwhile, Lucknow Super Giants' other debutant Manimaran Siddarth, the 25-year-old left-arm orthodox spinner, bowled the first over of the match and rounded off his first game with 0/21 figures in two overs.
Mohsin Khan also made an impact with two back-to-back wickets of Shikhar Dhawan and Sam Curran in the 17th over to put LSG in the driving seat throughout the death overs play at Ekana Cricket Stadium. Punjab Kings struggled to find momentum in the closing stage and fell 21 runs short of the target.
Mayank was awarded the Player of the Match trophy for his 3/27 figures and turning the game for Lucknow.
I've always heard from others there's nervousness in debuts but that goes away after the first ball," Mayank said in the post-match presentation. ""Plan was to not be under too much pressure and to bowl at the stumps and use the pace as much as possible. There was the thought to mix up the pace initially but the wicket helped and the skipper told me to bowl gas. The debut wicket was the favourite. Coming off the injury last season was tough, I'd set my goal to debut at a young age but injuries were a setback."
