Agencies
Bengaluru, April 3:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s strategy against the super-quick Mayank Yadav was to use his extreme pace against him, and it is not an unfamiliar approach in top-flight cricket.
But even on a slightly gripping Chinnaswamy pitch, Mayank, who clocked consistently north of 150 kmph and used angles wonderfully, upended RCB’s plans to walk away with impressive figures of 4-0-14-3.
Lucknow Super Giants won their IPL 2024 match by a princely 28-run margin to go fourth on the table with four points.
Mahipal Lomror, who came in as an impact sub, was a distant spectator from dugout when Mayank unleashed his fury, but he was candid enough to explain RCB’s failure in detail.
“Honestly, our plan was simple…to use his (Mayank) space against him. It’s a small ground and the ball flies here. So, our overall plan was just to use his pace and not to go against it.
“But there were some mistakes which happened and I think we need to be very clear about what we’re going to do if someone is bowling every ball at 150 clicks. We need to be clear in our heads,” said Lomror, who has the experience of playing Mayank in local cricket, in the post-match press meet.
However, Lomror said playing Mayank in local tournaments is quite different from playing him in a top-tier event like the IPL.