Debutant Mayank Yadav impressed with his pace on March 30, Saturday, while playing in the Indian Premier League 2023. The Lucknow pacer rattled Punjab with his rapid deliveries and clinched 3 important wickets to hand LSG their first win of the tournament. Mayank earned praise from Nicholas Pooran for bowling at rapid pace and derailing the Punjab batting order, who were in a brilliant position through the half-way mark in their chase of 200 runs.
After the match, Lucknow’s stand-in captain, Nicholas Pooran, was asked about the possibility of Shamar Joseph and Mayank bowling together. Pooran sounded excited about the prospect and did not rule the possibility out in the tournament. Playing at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, Mayank clocked the fastest ball of the tournament so far, at 155.8 kmph, which prompted legendary pacer Brett Lee to praise him on Twitter. Lee took to Twitter during the match and said that Mayank was the fastest bowler in India at the moment, ahead of Hyderabad’s Umran Malik.
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Shamar Joseph had earlier burst on to the cricketing scene in West Indies’ Test tour of Australia, where he made an incredible impact in both matches. On Day 4 of the second Test match, an injured Joseph ran through the Australian team, earning the West Indies a famous victory on Australian soil.
“Mayank Yadav does not know how to bowl slowly in the nets. I have faced him once in the nets. Kyle Mayers was telling me in training ‘he’s quick, he’s quick’. I am just happy that the management was able to give him an opportunity today. And I mean, he is going to be the talk of the town for the next couple of weeks,” Nicholas Pooran said on Jio Cinema after the match.
Pooran reminded fans and experts that LSG had a young bowling group and everyone needed to tread carefully with praise and criticism. Pooran said that Mayank was going to be the talk of the town for the next few weeks and should not be criticised on days when he is unlucky or bad.
“Everything is possible (Shamar Joseph and Mayank Yadav playing together). It depends on KL and the bosses. It will be wonderful. We have a really young bowling group, tonight was successful and there are a lot of learnings that we will take away from this game and there will be games where we will be put under pressure.
“In smaller venues, a lot of top edges will happen and there are the best batters in the world who will hit you for runs. As a group, we need to stay together and encourage the young fast bowlers. We need to comfort them, show them love and not criticise them when things go wrong for them,” Pooran concluded.
With the win, LSG are now in 5th place in the league table with 2 points to their name.
