- Tuesday, May 07, 2024
Mumbai Indians’ Gerald Coetzee allegedly bowled a delivery at 157.4 kmph against Rajasthan Royals on April 1, a day before Yadav fired his at 156.7 kmph. But Coetzee’s ‘record’ vanished later.
By: Shubham Ghosh
MAYANK Yadav, who made his debut in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, has been a sensation with raw pace in just two games that he has played. The 21-year-old, who is playing for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the tournament, bowled a delivery at 156.7 kilometres per hour (kmph) against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Tuesday (2), announcing his arrival in a brilliant way.
Yadav picked three wickets in both the matches he has played so far — against Bengaluru and Punjab Kings before that, giving enough indication to batters in opponent teams that they will have to rethink strategies to handle him in the games to come.
However, confusion arose in the IPL logbooks over who bowled the fastest delivery in the tournament since Gerald Coetzee of Mumbai Indians (MI) also caught attention for allegedly clocking 157.4 kmph on Monday (1), making him the fastest bowler of the season instead of Yadav. But when the updated rankings were shown, Yadav’s name was at the top instead of the South African pacer.
Read: Lucknow sink Bengaluru ship as Mayank Yadav fires ‘cannon balls’
A graphic from the IPL, posted on its official X account, showed Australian Shaun Tait remained the fastest overall in the tournament with 157.7 kmph speech. He was followed by New Zealand’s Lockie Ferguson at 157.3 kmph and Indian bowler Umran Malik at 157 kmph. Yadav was at No.4. Coetzee did not feature in that list.
Mayank Yadav enters the Top 5⃣ leaderboard ⚡️⚡️
Recap the lightening quick's match-winning performance 🎥🔽 #TATAIPL | #RCBvLSG https://t.co/UiOQKfDW8N pic.twitter.com/xJekRg8j9g
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 2, 2024
More confusion was seen when another graphic showed Coetzee at the third position in the ongoing season with a speed record of 152.3 kmph. But what was surprising is that the alleged delivery was bowled against a team that Mumbai Indians are yet to face in the tournament.
Read: IPL commentator schools Mumbai crowd for constantly booing Hardik Pandya: ‘Behave’
Gerald Coetzee pips Mayank Yadav to clock the fastest delivery of #IPL2024 ⚡💪 pic.twitter.com/7UFBwXOZhU
— MI Fans Army™ (@MIFansArmy) April 2, 2024
The delivery, it was shown, was bowled against ‘Kings’ when Mumbai have not faced neither Punjab Kings nor Chennai Super Kings in the season so far.
ESPNCricinfo said in a report that the speedometer was at fault in the Mumbai-Rajasthan game and the actual speed of Coetzee’s delivery was “around 141 kmph”.
If that is true, then Yadav remains the fastest in the tournament so far.
