It is still the start of the Indian Premier League season 2024, and now, after 16 matches, Mayank Yadav seems to be emerging as the star of this IPL season. The 21-year-old novice pacer bowled the fastest ball of this edition of the IPL on his debut. After this, only two days later, he broke it to set a new record. There is hardly a better sight in world cricket than a fast bowler running in and destroying the stumps, but for the fans of Indian cricket, such visuals are even sweeter. They have waited for a number of years, even decades, to see a fast bowler from India terrorize the batters of Australia, and to finally see Mayank do the same to the likes of Cameron Green and Glenn Maxwell is nothing less than a dream come true.
During Lucknow Super Giants’ outing against Punjab Kings, where he took 3/27, Mayank had already impressed with his raw pace and bowled a delivery clocked at 155.8 kph. But merely two days later, against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, he was even more ruthless. Mayank took the wicket of Rajat Patidar, Maxwell, and Green to finish with splendid figures of 3/14, which included him sending down a snorter of 156.7 kmph. While he didn’t get any wicket on that ball but the balls which got wicket were a sight to behold. Green was clueless, and Maxwell bounced out.
Maxwell, in particular, was pretty blown away by the speed of Mayank. While speaking around the wicket, Maxwell said that he thought it was really cool, as he did the same with a few of the batters from Punjab. Before coming up against Mayank, Maxwell certainly did a little bit of homework. But it’s nothing like doing homework against someone until you actually see it coming out of the hand and have to try and pick up the length. The first ball bowled by Mayank was just a high bouncer, and the wicket produced at Bengaluru has been a little bit two-paced, and it came a bit slower than I thought it was going to.”
While praising Mayanka Maxwell, he said, Mayank has some real extra speed that we don’t really see a lot of around-the-world cricket at the moment. Bowlers ball consistently at a speed of around 140 kph or high 140s. But to have a consistent speed of mid-150s is quite impressive.”
On the list of fastest balls bowled in the IPL, Mayank is now in fifth place. Shaun Tait, an Australian fast bowler, is in the number one position with a speed of 157.7 kmph, even after 13 years. This may look a bit premature, but the action of Mayank reminded Maxwell of the former Australian pacer. Having faced them both, Maxwell feels there is a certain amount of resemblance between Mayank and Tait.
