His searing spell of 3 for 14 in four overs at the Chinnaswamy Stadium included the wickets of Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green, batters accustomed to facing high speeds on bouncy pitches in Australia, and a well-set Rajat Patidar
“Feeling really good to get two Player-of-the-Match [awards] in two games but I’m more happy that we won both games,” Mayank said after LSG’s 28-run win against RCB. “My aim is to do well for the country for as many years as I can. This is just the start, and my focus is on the main goal.”
Mayank said his favourite wicket was that of Green, who was beaten on the outside edge and bowled by a delivery so fast that the ball flew off the stumps and cleared the boundary on the first bounce.
“You need quite a few things to bowl at this pace – like diet, sleep and training,” Mayank said. “If you want to bowl fast, it’s important to be perfect in everything. My focus is on my diet, and also on my recovery – like [taking] ice bath.”
“So happy to see Mayank bowl the way he is bowling in the last couple of games. He has quietly, patiently waited for two seasons in the dugout,” Rahul said. “[He] missed out last year because of injury unfortunately. But he has been in Bombay with the physios, working really hard.
“He understands bowling 155kph is not easy. At a young age, he has already had a few injuries… He has a great temperament, and I’m enjoying seeing him bowl from 20 yards behind the stumps. That’s where I’d like to be when he’s bowling!”
“Glad to have him in our team. He’s bowling really well,” de Kock said. “Normally as a youngster, a guy with express pace, you get caught up with a lot of things. But he’s keeping it really simple and doing really well.”
“Especially if there’s a bit of pace behind it, it’s really promising,” du Plessis said. “So it takes batters a few times just to get used to someone’s action, just to see how the ball is coming out of the hand. So really impressive to see his pace. But more impressive for me tonight was his ability to control length and bowl with some really good discipline. That’s more impressing – pace combined with accuracy.”
