Ranji Trophy: Late bloomer Lalit Yadav who fell in love with bowling fast

[nsareen]

Lalit Yadav has a fairly high arm action, which allows him to extract bounce. He keeps his front knee straight at the point of delivery, which helps him generate pace off the deck. Cricket came to this 21-year-old by chance, but now that he has fallen in love with fast bowling, Lalit wants to be a tearaway quick like his Vidarbha statemate Umesh Yadav.

This is Lalit’s debut season in first-class cricket and he has already bagged a couple of five-fors despite being only into his fourth Ranji Trophy fixture. The latest came on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Group B game against Maharashtra at Eden Gardens on Monday. The youngster returned with 5/81 from 23 overs on a sluggish pitch, hitting close to 137kph at times. “He will get to 140kph soon,” Lalit’s state team coach Paras Mhambrey said.

 

 

He is well-built for a 21-year-old. Javelin throw is a reason. “I represented New Panvel in (age-group) state athletics.

I performed well at the district-level selection trials. I also represented Vidarbha in (junior) state badminton championships. I used to play cricket for Pravin Hinganikar Cricket Academy (PHCA) in Nagpur but never thought of becoming a cricketer,” Lalit said.

He won the badminton singles gold at the Mahatma Hansraj zonal tournament. The late Hemant Karkare, the former Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief killed during the 2008 Mumbai attacks, gave away the prizes. The super cop would have been pleased with the multi-talented sportsman’s progress, albeit in cricket, if he were alive.

A few inter-club competitions changed Lalit’s career path. He bowled for fun, but performed well enough to earn selection to the Vidarbha Under-16 team. He was straightaway taken into the state cricket academy. Lalit was 15 years old then. “Once in cricket, I always wanted to bowl fast. I clocked 138kph at the MRF Pace Foundation. I want to bowl faster. No one has been an influence; I just tried to bowl quick for fun. I learnt my basics under Subroto Banerjee at the academy and now Paras sir is shaping me as a fast bowler. Sometimes Umesh bhai drops in at the academy and offers support and advice. Bowling discipline is very important in first-class cricket. I’m learning the ropes,” said Lalit. He is basically an outswing bowler but has the ability to reverse when the ball gets older. “I bowl outswing with the new ball. That’s my stock ball. When it gets older, I try to move the ball both ways. I can reverse the old ball. If I want to bowl cutters, I try to land it on the seam,” Lalit unlocked the technical secret.

He was wayward Sunday but showed a lot more discipline today. Lalit accounted for Rahul Tripathi with a lovely outswinger and breached Vishant More’s defence next ball with a fast yorker. Centurion Ankit Bawne played a little early and was caught at mid-off, when Lalit rolled his fingers over the seam. He also had a catch dropped of Naushad Shaikh early in his innings. The latter went on to score 127 and added 201 runs with Bawne for the fourth wicket.

 

 

 

[Rightarmfast]

Exciting times!

[Vijy]

Will be interesting to see how he develops.

[tweaker]

Lalit 

[express bowling]

Bowled with lively pace against Punjab, swung the ball both ways and sent down some good bouncers on a low pitch

[renjith]

Watched him bowl in the first innings against punjab. Speed looked around 135-140k to me. Personally was not exited watching him bowl.

Edited October 16, 2017 by renjith

[rkt.india]

2 hours ago, renjith said:

Watched him bowl in the first innings against punjab. Speed looked around 135-140k to me. Personally was not exited watching him bowl.

140 is good for a 22 year old. Remember Mohali is one of the slowest and lowest pitches in India. It is asking for a relay now for years.

Edited October 16, 2017 by rkt.india

[renjith]

1 hour ago, rkt.india said:

140 is good for a 22 year old. Remember Mohali is one of the slowest and lowest pitches in India. It is asking for a relay now for years.

Yes ofcourse. Its only his second year and he can improve a lot. Just that the wow factor was missing which was there when I first saw nathu and thampi bowl.

[rkt.india]

8 minutes ago, renjith said:

Yes ofcourse. Its only his second year and he can improve a lot. Just that the wow factor was missing which was there when I first saw nathu and thampi bowl.

You saw them bowl under speed guns and on better pitches, which had bounce.  Most bowlers wont give that wow factor on such a pitch.  To contradictory, he was standout pacer on this pitch to me. He got life out of this dead pitch even in 2nd innings.  You had to watch Sran bowl and his deliveries were barely carrying to the keeper.