NEW DELHI: As Lucknow Super Giants' star fast bowler Mayank Yadav suffered a side strain and left the field after bowling just one over in their IPL 2024 match against Gujarat Titans at the at Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday, home team captain KL Rahul told Yash Thakur that it could be his day.
LSG were looking for their first win over GT in five matches over three seasons.
Rahul had read the pitch well and opted to bat first, knowing that on the slow and low wicket, the rivals would have a tough time chasing a total in the second half.
In the end, the LSG skipper was proven right as his team bowlers rose to the occasion to defend a sub-par total of 163 runs to record their third win on the trot.
The LSG bowling unit bundled out Gujarat Titans for 130 to register a win by 33 runs.
Yash Thakur bagged 5/30 and was deservedly named man of the match.
One of the highlights of Thakur's five-wicket haul was the scalp of GT captain Shubman Gill.
Thakur bowled a cross-seam full straight delivery and Gill (19) played all around it, flicked and missed and was clean bowled.
So who is Yash Thakur who took the first five-wicket haul of IPL 2024?
Known as a death-over specialist, Thakur plays for Vidarbha in domestic cricket and was picked up by Lucknow Super Giants for IPL 2023 a day after he grabbed his first 5-wicket haul in First Class cricket and was retained for the 2024 season.
The pacer was rewarded for his white-ball performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy that caught the attention of many IPL franchises for the 2023 auction.
Thakur's base price was Rs 20 lakh and he got picked for Rs 45 lakh. The pacer was one of the leading death-over bowlers in the T20s.
Thakur had single-handedly won two crucial SMAT games by defending 11 runs against Uttarakhand in a group game, and 9 runs against star-studded Delhi in the quarterfinals, both in the last over. He was Vidarbha's highest wicket-taker and 5th highest in SMAT with 15 wickets, before being picked by LSG.
This is not the first season when Thakur gave glimpses of his white-ball flair. In the 2021 season's Vijay Hazare Trophy one-dayers, Thakur was the leading wicket-taker in the country with 18 wickets. Since then, Thakur has worked more on his fitness as well as his batting.
Thakur made his List-A debut for Vidarbha in the 2016-17 Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2017. In the very next season, he made his First-Class debut for Vidarbha in 2018-19.
Lucknow Super Giants hammer Gujarat Titans
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