Mumbai, (Samajweekly) With a sensational debut, Lucknow Super Giants pacer Mayank Yadav has come in for praise for one of modern cricket’s great pace bowlers — retired England speedster Stuart Broad, who along with former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar was very impressed with Yadav’s bowling.
Yadav became an overnight sensation after clocking the fastest delivery (155.8 KMPH) bowled in IPL 2024. He showcased his pace and talent to help Lucknow secure their first win of the season. With impressive figures of 3 for 27 in his four overs, Yadav’s performance was exceptional, earning him the Player-of-the-Match Award.
The standout moment for Yadav came when he clocked 155.8kph on the speed gun, delivering the fastest ball of the 2024 season thus far. His aggressive pace and accuracy rattled the Punjab Kings’ batting lineup, turning the tide of the match in Lucknow’s favour.
Speaking exclusively to Star Sports, Cricket Live Show former England cricketer Stuart Broad expressed his appreciation for Mayank Yadav. “Yeah, I’m smiling as well. Any time I see a young fast bowler come onto the scene and bowl with such great pace, aggression, and incredible attributes actually. He’s got a very calm run-up that gathers pace throughout. He’s balanced at the crease. I thought his line was fantastic today. I think when you bowl that sort of pace at 156 if you give width, you disappear.”
“But he was at the batters, he was over the stumps, cramping them and they were trying to give themselves room to open up the offside. He was coming in there and getting high-quality players, beating them from pace. As IPL debuts go, it was spectacular. Very, very special,” said Broad.
Cricket experts and commentators Manjrekar and Broad shared insights from the match played between Lucknow Super Giants and Punjab Kings. Both Sanjay and Stuart praised debutant Mayank Yadav for his phenomenal and accurate bowling. Manjrekar spoke on the debutant and speedster Mayank Yadav, and said, “Not just 150, I remember Umesh Yadav, when he bowled a 150 delivery at the Wankhede Stadium and I got him in the commentary box, we been really proud. This is 156, the fastest ball of the IPL, and his third ball that he bowled, and he would be able to tell us more about it. Somebody was just coming in, playing his first IPL game, the third ball touched 150. Which means, he doesn’t really need to make too much of an effort to bowl that quickly.”
Manjrekar added his further comments in the context. “If you remember Umran Malik also, another fast bowler that we have, he just struggled with lines sometimes and you got the impression that every time he went full, he wasn’t able to control his line. This guy was very smart. Until Shikhar Dhawan started playing in behind square, he kept everything short, which is a little easier to control line-wise. And after Jonny Bairstow played one superb shot on the off, he just got closer and closer, so he knows how to bowl as well. And really, I mean, social media will be buzzing today. We found the Delhi Express after the Rahul Tendi Express from Pakistan,“ said Manjrekar.
Manjrekar analyzed Nicholas Pooran’s batting and said he was trying to bat like Shikhar Dhawan. “People have tried this before as well and sometimes they’ve been disappointed, so somewhere you know people find comfort in the Pollards of the game, where down the order is better or Liam Livingstone on occasion same with Pooran as well but in the match, he was actually trying to play like Shikhar Dhawan trying to not anchor the inning but play responsibly and making sure there aren’t too many wickets that are getting lost.
“These are guys when they’re trying to play responsibly ensuring not too many wickets are falling but still striking at 200 is incredible. Shikhar did that as well 150 strike it while trying to steady the ship, so we saw some good batting performances just one guy who just completely shook up the whole system today, “Manjrekar told Star Sports.
Broad spoke on Krunal Pandya on playing the role of finisher for LSG. “You should play different roles in the IPL, having batted at four or five, but actually if you can be a player that a team can rely on down at six or seven to finish innings off, when you’ve got the quality of Quinton de Kock at the top of the order, KL Rahul, and you’ve got Marcus Stoinis, if you can be that player that can find the boundary in those last three overs and can be relied on for that, that makes you a very valuable player to have and he did that really well and ultimately you win the game by 21 runs, that 40 that comes in the last four overs, it proves crucial,” he said.
