How the ‘child of wind’ Mayank Yadav has emerged as the wind beneath LSG’s wings

On Tuesday, bowling on a two-paced wicket, the 21-year-old stuck to a singular approach. One he had imbibed at an early age: wind ’em up with pace. That he was able to use it to perfection against a pair of Australians, first-team starters no less, made his match-winning spell of 3/14 all the more special.

He trapped Glenn Maxwell with a short ball that clocked in at 151KPH. He’d turn back to a similar delivery for getting rid of Rajat Patidar to all but ensure a Lucknow win. But it was the corker he rammed into Cameron Green that took the cake on the night. Pitched outside off on length, it straightened up ever so little before clipping the off stump, and get this, raced all the way down the boundary rope behind. Child of wind, all right.

Kohli goes off balance

Chasing 182, RCB had got off to a flying start with 40 runs off the first four overs. Virat Kohli – on the back of consecutive fifties – looked in complete control as he launched Naveen-ul-Haq down the ground for a splendid six in the third over. One of his standstill-and-deliver classics. In the next over however, in an attempt to up the ante, Kohli advanced down the track and gifted his wicket away – a first in IPL for M Siddharth.

The first ball from the left-arm orthodox saw Kohli latch onto the delivery, losing his shape, before looping the ball to backward point. Trying to get under the ball, his back leg hung in the air as he made the contact and the eyes weren’t underneath – as they generally are. The Chinnaswamy had bursted its lungs out just the last over. Now, it was pin drop silence.

De Kock fights it out

It wasn’t a picture-perfect knock by any stretch. Neither was it forged at a linear pace, and had its share of revs and drops on a two-paced strip. But with wickets tumbling at one end, it was Quinton de Kock’s 56-ball-81 that ensured Lucknow’s innings didn’t derail before Nicholas Pooran provided the finishing touches.

With RCB deploying left-arm seamers for the new ball from both ends, the southpaw established a firm footing by carving both Reece Topley and Yash Dayal for boundaries in the short third-deep point arc. It was in this region that he pickpocketed 48 percent of his runs.

However, it were his two pick-shots off Mohammed Siraj in the third over that seemed more ominous for the home side. It’s the delicacy De Kock is best known for. A shot so deeply ingrained in his memory that he doesn’t even need to move his front leg before making the connection with the ball. The front leg, transferring its weight on the heel, rotates 45 degrees to the right as soon as he gets the bat onto the ball. It’s his strong wrists that help in swinging through the line of the ball, as they did when Siraj pitched a length ball lined on the leg stump.

But with the seamer pitching the next one closer to the middle pole, De Kock was quick to clear his front leg out before dispatching the ball over the leg side, more squarer on this occasion. Having raced to 29 off just the 12 deliveries, his innings tapered off in the latter half of the powerplay. Yash Dayal capitalised on a chink in his armor – taking the pace off, lining the ball as far outside the off as he could.

Struggling for rhythm, trudging his way to a fifty, De Kock would up the ante in the 11th over off Mayank Dagar. Hanging back in his crease the LSG opener claimed a four, a six, and a second half-century in a row.

He was furthermore benefitted by Cameron Green not taking the pace off the ball – injudicious on this surface – in the next over, and claimed a couple more boundaries. In the end it was a back-of-a-hand slower one that did him. On another day, it was a full toss De Kock would’ve cleared the fence off, as easily as another southpaw did.

Pooran packs a punch

With De Kock back in the hut, Lucknow were still tottering at 143/4. A lot rested upon Nicholas Pooran, who’d slogged 42 off 21 – donning the captain’s hat – in the last game to purchase their first win of the season.

At the Chinnaswamy, Pooran had only collected 8 runs off his first 10 deliveries. Come the final two overs though, the swashbuckling batsman went full-throttle as he struck five mammoth sixes – none bigger than his pull off Topley over mid-wicket that landed on the roof of the stadium and looked on its way down towards Cubbon Park.