IPL 2024 | ‘This could be your day’: Rahul backs Yash Thakur

Yash Thakur celebrates the wicket of GT skipper Shubman Gill at Lucknow on Sunday. Pic/PTI

Lucknow Super Giants are throwing up some fine, young match-winners in the early part of their IPL campaign. In their first two wins, it was speedster Mayank Yadav and on Sunday night another young pace bowler, Yash Thakur hogged the attention by becoming the first bowler to take a fifer (5-30) this season as LSG defended a sub-par score of 163 against Gujarat Titans on a rather sluggish Ekana Stadium pitch.

Lucky break

Yash, 25, who plays for Vidarbha in the domestic circuit, and came into the playing XI only because regular pacer Mohsin Khan was sidelined with injury, grabbed the lucky break with both hands.

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KL Rahul

During Sunday's match, Mayank, who had bagged Man of the Match awards in the previous two games, got injured after bowling just one over, conceding 13 runs. As a distraught Mayank walked off the field, clutching his side, most LSG fans would have feared that the exit of a proven match-winner would hurt the hosts especially since they hadn't posted a big total. However, Yash put his hand up at the perfect time. He first cleaned up GT captain Shubman Gill with a peach of a delivery on the last ball of the Powerplay and then accounted for Vijay Shankar and Rashid Khan. In his last spell, he dismissed Rahul Tewatia, following which he completed his five-wicket haul with the wicket of Noor Ahmed to help the hosts to a hard-earned 33-run win.

A beaming Yash said at the post-match press conference that all his hard work had paid off. "The encouragement and advice of the support staff and especially of [KL] Rahul bhaiya made me give my best at the right time. After Mayank Yadav's unfortunate injury, Rahul bhaiya said, ‘this could be your day', and asked me to make the most of it. He urged me to have faith in my ability. In the process, I helped my team win," said Yash.

"I'm happy with this five-wicket haul and Man of the Match award as it helped our team win a low-scoring game. Luckily, the plan against Gill worked as I stuck to Rahul bhaiya's advice. There was no looking back," added Yash.

LSG's spinners dominate too

While Yash hogged most of the limelight, the role played by the spin duo of Krunal Pandya and Ravi Bishnoi can't be ignored too. Krunal picked up three wickets for just 11 runs in his four overs while Bishnoi got rid of Kane Williamson with a brilliant return catch.

Rahul had high praise for his young bowling unit: "Yash was exceptional and deserves all the success. All three spinners have been key for us. Sid [Manimaran Siddharth] has done well, especially since he has to bowl with the new ball. He has picked up wickets, but his job is to restrict runs in the Powerplay. KP [Krunal] has played for so many years. He's smart and knows how to bowl. I've played with Bishnoi too for long and know how he picks up crucial wickets. In the end, it feels good to get off the mark [against the Titans] having lost all four previous matches over the last two seasons," Rahul concluded.