Lucknow Super Giants express pace bowler Mayank Yadav had another injury scare in the 2024 IPL when he was dismissed after the first ball of his fourth over against Mumbai Indians. His captain KL Rahul said it was more of a precautionary measure after he complained of pain in the same area that had kept him out of five matches before this one. He will undergo scans on Wednesday to rule out any further problems.
Rahul said at the post-match presentation:
"I have not really spoken to him. He was out in the last game because of a slight pain in his side, not a side strain, but slight pain there. After the first ball [of his fourth over], he said the same thing, 'thoda dukh raha hai [it's hurting a bit]'. So I said might as well go out and not risk the next five balls. He is still young and precious to us, so we need to look after him."
Mayank, 21, had played three matches earlier in this IPL before being sidelined with abdominal pain.
In his first two IPL matches, against Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Mayank had bagged the Player-of-the-Match awards with three fours in both matches, regularly hitting over 150km/h and surprising with his speed on the big stage, especially without much experience in domestic cricket; Mayank had played just one first-class match, 17 List A matches and 10 T20s before his IPL debut.
Against MI, Mayank had bowled his first three overs for 31 runs - while increasing the pace - before he was called on to bowl the 19th over. His first ball went through Mohammad Nabi and crashed into the stumps, but the fast bowler then departed and his over was completed by Naveen-ul-Haq. Mayank did not show any discomfort as he walked off and was later replaced by Arshin Kulkarni as the impact player at the innings break.
Mayank had started his day in dramatic fashion when he came on after the powerplay and his first delivery, at 144.1kph, struck Nehal Wadhera on the helmet. He also broke the 150 km/h mark later in the over but bowled most of his deliveries in the 140-147 km/h range and kept most of his deliveries short or just short of good length.