https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/harshit-rana-interview-kkr-ipl-shah-rukh-khan-9358217 Rana bagged 19 wickets in 13 games and played a pivotal role in Kolkata Knight Rider’s IPL triumph. After the breakthrough IPL season, the Delhi speedster is dreaming of playing for India. Harshit Rana was the engine on which the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team functioned and went on to lift the title for the third time. When Mitchell Starc was struggling with his rhythm in the first half of the IPL, it was Harshit, the uncapped Indian bowler, who stepped up for his team. He bagged 19 wickets in 13 games. The Indian Express caught up with Harshit and the 22-year-old shares his journey in the IPL, what Shah Rukh Khan promised him, why he started playing cricket and his future goals. EXCERPTS: What was more special, winning the IPL or celebrating it with Shah Rukh Khan? Harshit Rana: Both (laughs). Was that flying kiss celebration with Shah Rukh pre-planned? Harshit Rana: Oh Yes! After I got banned for one match, I was very sad and then Shah Rukh sir came to me and said ‘Tu tension mat le ye waali celebration Trophy ke saath karenge (We will celebrate the IPL with a flying kiss). He promised me and made sure that we did that with the trophy and our team. Will the ban curb your aggression in the future? Harshit Rana: Sawaal hi nahi hota (Not a chance). Next time I will make sure that I will not use it as a send-off. This is my cricket. I have always played my cricket like this. Mai off the field bahut fun hun aap kisi se puch lo but ab cricket field dosti karne thodi na aaye hai (I am a fun-loving guy off the field but on the cricket pitch, I am not there to make friends, I want to win). Abhishek Porel smacked me for 16 runs in my first over. Ab chakke lagenge to ego hurt hoga na, smile toh nahi karunga na (If someone hits you for sixes you can’t laugh). In the next over, I took his wicket, the celebration was my redemption but I got banned. Do you think cricketers from Delhi are ultra-aggressive? Harshit Rana: This tag has been given to us. Hum Delhi wale hai, emotional hai, aur dil se khelte hai (We are from Delhi we play cricket with our heart). This Delhi’s aggression has made Virat Kohli the Virat Kohli he is. Ishant Sharma played 100 Test matches, and Rishabh Pant did that miracle at Gabba. Gautam Gambhir won two World Cup finals for India. You’ve looked very lean in this year’s IPL. How many kilos you have shed? Harshit Rana: From the Mushtaq Ali Trophy that I played last year (2023-24) season in November to the start of the IPL in March, I have lost 17 kgs. What instigated this fitness revolution? Harshit Rana: It hit me first when I played in the IPL last year. Following the IPL, I played Duleep Trophy, I was picked for India A but then I got injured. I realised I was doing well, and people were talking about me, I was even performing well but I am frequently getting injured. I realised that I wanted to play for India, and fulfil my father’s dream, I needed to stay fit. I can’t let injuries hamper my dream. You have always been a hit-the-deck kind of bowler but in this year’s IPL, you were hitting the good length more often and you’re bowling the off-cutters brilliantly. Where did you learn it? Harshit Rana: Khud se (Self-taught). I worked on my bowling at the NCA when I was there after I sustained a hamstring injury at the start of the Ranji Trophy camp. This is something that I had in the back of my mind that I needed to add more variations in my bowling and during rehab I started working on it. Please share your experience of working with Bharat Arun for the past two years. Harshit Rana: I loved working with Bharat sir. He is an excellent listener. If I am trying to say something he will always listen. Tactically he doesn’t speak much but he gives you that mental boost. He told me that I am playing in the IPL because I have the required skill set. But just having skills will not help me play for India. I must start delivering in the difficult overs for my team and that would make me a better bowler than the rest. Despite having Mitchell Starc in the team, the captain Shreyas Iyer showed more faith in you. Any specific reason? Harshit Rana: With every match my performance enhanced. The team management started to have more trust in me. The captain had a lot of faith in me that I could deliver for the team in the crunch overs. I won a few games bowling the last over as well. Do you consider yourself a bowling all-rounder? Harshit Rana: Arey sir, Duleep Trophy mey century hai. I consider myself a proper all-rounder. In this IPL because of the Impact Player rule, I never got the opportunity to bat. I was itching to smack a few sixes but our team was doing so well that I never got the chance to bat. Who has played the most important role in your career? Harshit Rana: Hands down my father (Pradip Rana). He was a hammer thrower. He always wanted me to take up any sport and represent India. I was never a cricket-crazy kid. Doston ke saath gully mohalle mey khel liya (I used to play with my friends in the streets). One day I stopped to watch a cricket tournament in my school (Ganga International School), and I reached home late. My father asked me where I was and I told him about the cricket tournament. He gently asked if I loved playing cricket and I was a bit scared and just replied ‘yes.’ The next day he got me enrolled in a cricket academy. What’s next then? Harshit Rana: Mujhe India jersey chahiye

https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/ipl/yash-dayal-redemption-rcb-vs-csk-ipl-9338869 Ridiculed after being hit for five sixes in the final over by Rinku Singh, Prayagraj pacer bounces back by getting M S Dhoni out at the end to put team in IPL playoffs. AT YASH Dayal’s home in Prayagraj, no one was watching Saturday’s crucial Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Chennai Super Kings tie, the do-or-die game between the IPL’s two most popular sides. Since last year, the family had been wary of tuning in to IPL’s high-pressure matches involving their son, the 26-year-old RCB pacer who mostly gets to bowl the all-important final over. Back in 2023, Kolkata Knight Riders’ Rinku Singh had hit Yash for five successive sixes – the thrashing would give him and his family life-long trauma. Yash would be the target of trolls and meme-makers. All that changed on Saturday. RCB managed a grand comeback by knocking out CSK and snatching a play-off spot. The latter needed 17 runs in the final over to make it to the playoffs, but Yash conceded just 7. The left-arm pacer would get hugs and high-fives from teammates, but also got his long-awaited redemption. Father Chandarpal did watch his son’s moment of triumph live as he couldn’t resist the urge to switch on the television before the game’s final over. But for a moment, the Dayals regretted breaking the family rule. Off Yash’s first ball, CSK’s last action hero M S Dhoni hit a six that went out of the stadium. Speaking to The Indian Express a day after the game, Chandarpal can now afford to laugh as he recalls those tense moments. “I blamed myself for ruining another match for my son. Dhoni can still tear apart any bowler,” he said over the phone. “I just folded my hands and started praying. ‘Aaj mere bachhe ka saath dena bhagwaan, fir se wo nahi hona chahiye (God, please support my son today. It should not happen again). It felt good the way he held his nerve after the first ball. I enjoyed the winning moment.” Yash had done the impossible, he had restricted two of the game’s best finishers, Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja. RCB captain Faf du Plessis acknowledged the effort of the UP pacer, saying it was Yash who deserved the Man of the Match award and not him. Rinku, Yash’s tormentor from last season, would post ‘God’s plan baby’ on Instagram for Yash, along with a salute emoji. Chandarpal recalls the tough times Yash and the family went through after those five sixes by Rinku. “In one of the WhatsApp groups, a person I know shared a meme, mocking Yash for conceding five sixes and I still remember what he wrote with the picture ‘Prayagraj Express ki kahaani shuru hone se pehle hi khatam ho gayi (The story of Prayagraj Express got over before it even began),” he said. “It never stopped, we as a family literally quit all WhatsApp groups, barring our family one. Even when RCB picked him in the auction for Rs 5 crore, I remember someone saying ‘Paise naale mei baha aaye Bangalore waale (The franchise threw the money in the drain)’. We live in a world where even if you switch off from social media, you will end up seeing all kinds of stuff,” he said. “Everyone wrote him off. And today, I am receiving a number of congratulatory calls and messages. Still, no one is talking about his hard work, grind and the way he tackled the pressure. The slower bouncer he has developed, the other variations he has learnt in the last year. The way he has bowled at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, where even an edge goes for a six. But it’s fine because in one year, we as a family have realised cricket really is a funny game,” said Chandarpal, bursting into laughter. Turning point He also revealed that when RCB were at the bottom of the table, the franchise made sure that every cricketer had a family member with them to take their minds away from the cricket field. Yash called his elder sister Shuchi, a dietician by profession, who has been the cricketer’s pillar of strength since childhood. “She is very protective about Yash. She was the luck RCB needed because the moment she joined the team hotel, RCB started winning and they ended up winning five in a row. She had to return because of her work but with his sister around, it filled Yash with positivity and his performances also started to enhance,” the father said. Last year, a couple of days after being hit for five sixes, Yash asked his father “Papa, career khatam ho gaya kya mera (Is my career over)?” The fears were unfounded. After his heroics in the last match, Yash told his father to pack his bags and come watch him play in the Eliminator on May 22. “I am yet to see a single match at the stadium in this year’s IPL. Yash had asked me to come and watch the last two league games in Bengaluru. I randomly told him ‘playoffs mein aate hain (I will be there in the playoffs)’. He said ‘Papa, chances are very slim.’ Now they have qualified and I will book my tickets for Ahmedabad,” Chandarpal said.

In the 11 innings in this year’s IPL, Rajasthan Royals opener Yashasvi Jaiswal has been dismissed by the left-arm quicks five times out of which three were attempted to pull shots. https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/yashasvi-jaiswal-weakness-left-arm-seamers-india-t20-world-cup-2024-9318879 Even before Axar Patel pouched the top-edged pull from Yashasvi Jaiswal at mid-off, the bowler Khaleel Ahmed pointed his finger at his Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant. It seemed as if it was a plan that had come off. Two features stood out: a left-arm seamer and miscued pull off a short rising ball. Though the left-handed opener has mustered 320 runs with an impressive strike rate of 157.64 this IPL, it is Yashasvi Jaiswal’s struggle against the left-arm seamers and the miscued attempts to pull back-of-the-length deliveries that would worry the Indian team, heading into the T20 world cup. Yashasvi Jaiswal, 22, has been hot and cold in this season for the Royals. Sample this: in 11 IPL knocks this year, the Rajasthan Royals opener has been dismissed by the left-arm quicks five times out of which three were attempted pull shots. In the Royals tournament opener against Lucknow Super Giants, it was the lefty Mohsin Khan, who tested Jaiswal with a back-of-a-length short rising ball and he ended up ballooning it straight to Krunal Pandya at mid-on. Against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), it was Reece Topley, whose extra bounce did the trick for Jaiswal as another mistimed pull was caught by Glenn Maxwell at mid-off. Against Mumbai Indians, he became the debut IPL scalp for the 17-year-old left-handed Kwena Maphaka. The young South African bowled it full and Jaiswal tried to loft it over cover but ended up chipping it straight to Tim David at cover. T Natarajan is another left-arm quick, who has had Jaiswal’s number this season. If the short-pitch ploy had worked against Yashasvi Jaiswal, Punjab Kings’s Kagiso Rabada and Marcus Stoinis dismissed him by serving wide from back of the length. On both occasions, Jaiswal tried to charge down the ground and was caught at third man and sweeper cover, respectively. “Yashasvi Jaiswal got out to a left-arm pacer once again. He hasn’t got out to a short ball for the first time. He has been dismissed many times and got out once more. It was an almost similar shot and got caught in front of the wickets,” former India opener Aakash Chopra has said on his YouTube channel. In all those dismissals, one can see that Yashasvi Jaiswal is trying too hard to clear the ropes. The balls that climb on him, he has been going hard, unable to get into the right positions. India pacer Mohammed Shami reckons Jaiswal is rushing to play shots and that is affecting his ‘shape’. “He looked out of shape while playing the shot (pull),” Shami said about Jaiswal on his YouTube channel. Shami also talked about how Jaiswal is rushing a touch, too eager to hit hard. “He seemed to be in a rush,” Shami said while analysing the Delhi Capitals vs Rajasthan Royals match. “He got out to a shot which was not required. It was not needed. He is in good touch and has even scored a century.” The old flaws are back Earlier this year after the conclusion of the five-match Test series against England, Zubin Bharucha, Rajasthan Royals’ high-performance director, pointed out a couple of flaws in Yashasvi Jaiswal’s batting that he spotted after the youngster’s first season for the Royals. The first problem was Yashasvi Jaiswal’s inability to play shots on the on-side. And so far now, in this season, the Jaiswal is again struggling to score runs at on-side. Even during his unbeaten 104 against Mumbai Indians, 62 per cent of runs were scored on the off-side. The other technical aspects took a lot longer to improve and as per Bharucha, it took eighteen months to be precise getting him to bend his elbow at the point of impact. Because of that, he couldn’t generate enough power. “Yash was bending his elbow at the point of impact. When you bend your elbow at the point of impact, you do not generate power. To solve that problem, it took us 18 months. We have ensured that the elbow is not bent at the point of impact and by using different bats and balls,” Bharucha had told this newspaper. Jaiswal had overcome these technical issues with his grind at Talegaon, the training base of Rajasthan Royals. However, now with the T20 World Cup starting, a week after the IPL final, the youngster won’t have much time to figure out his shortcomings. And with Rajasthan Royals set to play the playoffs, Jaiswal would also be among those who will reach the US a bit later than the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav. Jaiswal’s struggle against the left-arm seamers will undoubtedly make the opponents field at least two left-arm quicks against India. Not just Jaiswal, the left-arm seamers will target Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. There is a high chance that on June 9, Pakistan will start with Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Amir in New York, against India’s top three.

https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/ipl/shashank-singh-ashutosh-sharma-tale-of-two-gutsy-cricketers-9253828/ Shashank is a journeyman, who got his IPL contract due to a goof-up, while Ashutosh, who was discarded by Madhya Pradesh, got his second home at Railways, and broke Yuvraj Singh’s record to catch scouts’ attention. Shashank Singh hails from Bhilai, famously known for the steel plant. Ashutosh Sharma is from Ratlam, which is best known for the dialogue “Ratlam ki galiyaan,” in the Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor – starrer Jab We Met. Neither Bhilai nor Ratlam is famous for being a cricketing hub. On Thursday night, the two little-known uncapped players led Punjab Kings to a three-wicket win over Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Singh clubbed four sixes and six boundaries in his unbeaten 61 off 29 balls, while Ashutosh scored a quickfire 17-ball 31. Mohammed Kaif, who has seen Shashank from close quarters during his two-year stint with Chattisgarh sums up the “fearless” approach of the two batters. “Players like Shashank wait for the opportunity and they know that if they fail no one is going to talk about them. No one will be bothering why they failed. Every chance is the last chance for them. Such players come from small cities and have big hunger,” Kaif tells The Indian Express. “I met him this season during the RCB game and he got out on 0 batting down the order. He said bhai aage karoonga, pakka karoonga (I will do better in the future) and he has been not out since then. It’s not an easy position to bat, especially for uncapped players batting at number 7. Mostly each team has a foreigner who plays at that position someone like Andre Russell. The lower-order batsman will have to score against quality attacks and face bowlers like Bumrah in the end. So to perform there is a big thing,” adds Kaif. On the same lines, Amey Khurasia, who scouted Sharma, when he was 12, says the the small cameo means a lot for Ashutosh and players like him, who have fought the system to reach this level. “One should offer a prayer for such players. Ashutosh would have been lost if not for the Punjab Kings. He has lost 3-4 years of his cricket because of the dirty politics,” says Khurasia. “We always hear stories that one should prioritise first-class cricket. But then there are many like Ashutosh, who disappear because of the system. Imagine, if not for Punjab Kings and the IPL, would we have heard the name of Ashutosh? He would have played for Railways all his life. “When he went into bat, it was the first time he was batting in an international arena, in that big stadium, where the team is under immense pressure. He was just waiting for one chance and he got it and almost took his team home. How many first-class cricketers can do that in the IPL, very few,” he says. Shashank, a mistaken identity Shashank was 13 when his father was posted in Jabalpur when he started making inroads in the U-15 and U-17 cricket. In his U-19 to U-25 and early List-A T20 years, Shashank was part of the Mumbai setup alongwith the likes of Abhishek Nayar, Shivam Dube, Suryakumar Yadav and Shubham Ranjane. A fierce competition in the ranks for the starting XI afforded him little game time. It was when his fellow teammate Abhishek Nayar moved to Pondicherry that he convinced Shashank to move with him. During his one-year cooling-off period though, Shashank was approached by Chattisgarh Cricket to join them. His IPL story has been no different. Having been signed by the Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals in his first two years in the league, Shashank didn’t get to play in a single game. It was at Sunrisers Hyderabad where he first caught the eyes in the 2022 season where he made 10 appearances, one of which saw him maul three sixes in a row to New Zealand speedster Lockie Ferguson. But even that wasn’t enough as Shashank was let go by the 2016 winners. His move to Punjab wasn’t a smooth transition either with the drama during the 2024 auction leaving many under the impression that Punjab Kings didn’t want him, having mistaken him for another. “What he brings to the table is that he has played junior cricket from Mumbai. His parents being from Chattisgarh, he’s got a right to play here, which he used. He made his return here in 2019 and has been playing for us since,” says Hitesh Goswami, Chattisgarh coach, who is also Punjab Kings scout. “There are some players who feed off the trust you show in them and Shashank is one of them. I picked it very early in him, he was the one who will win you the games. ‘You are my number 1 player.’ If you show the trust in him, he’ll deliver. Punjab did the same with him. I’m also a talent scout for them. I was pushing for Shashank. I used to tell them, Sunil Joshi and Sanjay Bangar, ‘Trust me, I’m only a scout, but he’s a good player.’ I pushed Punjab Kings to pick him, whatever happens. “But even after he was selected, it looked like there was no chance that he’d be in the starting team. But the franchise took my word for it. The first time it has happened that a player from Chattisgarh has played four out of four IPL games in a season.” From June this year, Chattisgarh Premier League is coming up and Goswami says it won’t be as big as TNPL or KPL but it will create a big pool of cricketers for Chattisgarh. “Look I can’t pretend that now we have CPL, we will be giving players to the IPL. No, we are not,” he says. “What will happen is: 120 players, 6 teams, which means 80-90 players will play in the tournament. They will get a very good stage to move forward. They will be in the limelight, people

https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/mayank-yadav-the-150kph-plus-bowler-hearing-tales-curtly-ambrose-dale-steyn-delhi-circuit-9242954/ Spotted by the late Tarak Sinha at the age of 13, Mayank Yadav on Saturday night in Lucknow had the entire Ekanna Stadium on its feet with his pace. Jonny Bairstow, a wrecker of pace bowling all around the world, was in for a shock on Saturday night when he shaped to pull a back-of-length delivery from the debutant Mayank Yadav as it rushed at him in a blur. It resulted in a dolly of a catch and the subsequent wickets with bouncers in a sensational spell of 3/27, that included one at 155.8 kmph, against Punjab Kings warmed the hearts of Mayank’s father Prabhu Yadav. It took him back to a pivotal moment when Mayank was 14 and when he, a fan of the West Indian pace legend Curtly Ambrose, planted a seed in his son. Yadav sr. was returning from his factory, where they make sirens for ambulances and police vehicles, when he stopped at Sonnet Club at the Venkateshwara college in Delhi to watch Mayank bowl. On their way back home, the father would drop a nugget that would years later have repercussions in an IPL game at Lucknow’s Akana ground. “I shared with him a story of Ambrose. Tujhe pata hai usse log darte kyu tey? kyunki wo sar pe daalta tha, tujhe darana hai batsmen ko toh wahi karna hoga (You know why he was feared because he used to hit them on their heads. If you want to put that fear in their minds you must start doing the same),” Prabhu rewinds to that little big moment to The Indian Express. Over his teenage years, Mayank became the most fearsome pacer in Delhi and is named as “sar pe maarne wala bowler( Who hits on the head).” On Saturday, even as he was harassing the batsmen, the former pacer Brett Lee would tweet: “India has found its fastest bowler. Raw pace. Very impressive.” “General life mey bhi mujhe speed pasand hai (I am fascinated with speed in life in general). I love rockets, jets and superbikes. Speed gives me a thrill,” Mayank would say at the end of the game. The speedster who had clocked 153kmph in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy was on the selectors’s radar for the recent Test series against England as Mayank was supposed to get fit by the end of January from his side strain. A disappointed Mayank had shared his thoughts with this newspaper then, saying “Mai ek pair pe khel jata agar mai 60 per cent bhi ready hota (I would have played on one leg if my body would have been 60 per cent fit).” Mayank’s love for fast bowling had started as a taunt by his father at their home in West Delhi’s Motinagar, a few kilometres from where Virat Kohli grew up. And it involved two great fast bowlers: Ambrose and Dale Steyn. While Yadav sr was a fan of the Antiguan, the son liked the South African Steyn. “Muhje Ambrose aur Walsh kaafi pasand they (I used to love Ambrose and Walsh),” the father Prabhu Yadav tells The Indian Express. “Ambrose more because of his pace and the way he used to bounce the batsmen. I used to keep telling him their stories.” Mayank was a big fan of Dale Steyn and as someone who hated spending time at home watching cricket, he would only see if the South African was playing. “Was your Ambrose used to be as good as Steyn? He used to ask this and we developed a small rivalry on who is better, Ambrose or Steyn,” Prabhu Yadav recalls. Spotted by Rishabh Pant’s coach Tarak Sinha Raw pace and accuracy have been standout aspects of Yadav’s bowling on his IPL debut and even Shikhar Dhawan, who gave him his List A debut for Delhi, found it difficult to negotiate him. Mayank’s rise in the game has been quick, as he has never played U-14 and U-16 cricket for Delhi but the late Tarak Sinha, who was also the coach of Rishabh Pant, kept pushing the boy. “Ustaad ji (Tarak Singha) kisi ko ek nazar dekh lete tey bas who kaafi tha. jo Rishabh ke saath hua wahi Mayank ke saath hua (Tarak sir has this knack of spotting talent with just a quick glance; be it Rishabh or Mayank),” says Devender Sharma, who now runs the Sonnet Club. Devender recalled how ahead of his U-19 trials for Delhi in 2020, Tarak Sinha was upset with Mayank as he had declined the offer from Services to play him in their team. “He was not able to make it into the Delhi side and Services was giving him a job and a promise that he would get to play all the three formats, but Mayank didn’t take the offer,” says Devender. But Mayank would promise the celebrated coach that he would make it from Delhi. Unfortunately, Sinha died in the second wave of Covid in November 2021, and a month later Mayank made his Delhi debut in the Vijay Hazare Trophy at Sector 16 Stadium in Chandigarh. With 12 needed off the last two overs, Yadav bowled a maiden in the 49th over to seal the game. “I ran away after the Services guys told me that I was selected. I was not even giving my 50 per cent but three or four bouncers I bowled, they were impressed. But I wanted to play for Delhi. Sir mai Delhi ka ladka hun aur yahi se khelna tha (I am a Delhi boy and I wanted to play for Delhi). Tarak sir was really angry,” recalled Mayank. Mayank’s father Prabhu Yadav gets emotional while talking about the role Tarak Sinha has played in his son’s career. “Bhagwan hai Tarak sir (He is a god). One year, my business was not doing well. In the summer vacation, Sonnet used to organise a camp and the fee was Rs 65,000. I had requested Devender ji that I would pay it later and he had informed Ustaad ji