“One ball hit me really hard”: KL Rahul opens up on Mayank Yadav’s searing pace

After registering back-to-back two victories, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain KL Rahul had words of praise for Mayank Yadav, who rattled Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) with his scalding pace at Chinnaswamy on Tuesday, and joked that he rather enjoy 21-year-old’s bowling from 20 yards behind the stumps rather than facing him with the bat in hand.

On the back of top performances from Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran and Mayank, LSG clinched a thumping 28-run victory at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season.

Mayank set the speed gun on fire once again in the ongoing IPL and this time he burned RCB with a searing pace clocking 156.7 kph, ripping out Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green.

The 21-year-old, in two consecutive matches, has turned it around for LSG. 182 looked like a very chaseable target at the Chinnaswamy but an electric spell of raw pace and great accuracy meant that LSG recorded a comfortable victory. He repeatedly passed 150kph – and even cranked it up to a season-high 156.7 kph – to dumbstruck RCB batters, returning with a figure of three for 14.

The LSG captain lauded the Delhi tearaway and said that one of Mayank’s ball struck him really hard in the glove. Mayank did not get a single chance with the LSG team for the past two seasons largely due to injuries.

“Yeah one ball hit me really hard but so happy to see Mayank bowl the way he’s been bowling in the last couple of games. He’s quietly patiently waited for two seasons in the dugout, and missed out last year because of injury, unfortunately. But he’s been in Bombay with the physios working really hard. He understands that bowling 155 is not easy and in a young age, he’s had a few injuries. He’s really professional in looking after his body, it’s really good to see and has a great temperament. Enjoying seeing bowl from probably 20 yards behind the stumps, that’s where I’d like to be when he’s bowling,” Rahul said in a post-match presentation.

The Delhi tearaway became the sixth bowler in the IPL to take three-wicket hauls in two consecutive matches. Mayank started his IPL journey by bagging back-to-back Player of the Match performances awards.

Rahul lauded his side’s “overall” good performance and said, “Overall a really good performance. the wicket was a bit tricky and there was some help for the seamers. Quinton got us off to a good start. We were 10-15 runs ahead of what we needed to be. The talk was about using the wicket and not the yorkers. It’s important to stay calm. If I have a look at our record, it speaks differently.”