Fast bowler Yash Thakur was the hero for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Sunday (April 7) as they defeated Gujarat Titans by 33 runs defending 163. This was their third consecutive win and yet again, it was the fast bowler who won the player of the match award for them. On the first two occasions, it was speedster Mayank Yadav who won the award for consecutive three-wicket hauls but he walked off after bowling just one over due to side strain.
This is when KL Rahul handed the ball to Yash Thakur expressing confidence in him to do the job. The latter stepped up and skittled Shubman Gill in his very first over. He didn't stop there and ended up picking a five-wicket haul for just 30 runs in 3.5 overs while delivering a maiden over as well. It was a fantastic spell from the youngster and he credited his captain for the same revealing the message from Rahul before his first over.
"After Mayank left the field, (KL) Rahul bhai only said that 'may be this is your day, you can win the match for us'. He said, 'don't think much and keep faith in yourself'. He said, we'll only focus on the controllables and not waste time on external factors like what has happened to whom. I don't take the pressure of expectations as a concern. Rather I'm happy when people outside or my team expects me to win games. I enjoy this responsibility of winning games for the team," Yash said.
Yash Thakur also revealed that he bowled to the plan of the team varying his pace as the surface was slow and it was difficult to play shots especially against the older ball. "We knew that the wicket was slow, so the plan that we discussed, we stuck to it. Even if we got hit for runs, we would stick to it (the plan). KL told us we will get success. The variations, the slower ones, the bouncers I used, I kept getting success," Thakur added.
