Youngster Frazer-McGurk stuns Lucknow Super Giants, Kuldeep Yadav spins Delhi Capitals to victory

The youthful hitter Jake Frazer-McGurk of the Delhi Capitals surprised the Lucknow Super Giants, according to captain KL Rahul, who also mentioned that express pacer Mayank Yadav could need to spend some more time in the dugout recovering from a lower-abdomen ache.

With Australian Frazer-McGurk hitting an incredible 35 off only 35 balls in his IPL debut and combining with Rishabh Pant for a partnership of 77 runs (41), Delhi Capitals overcame LSG's 167-run mark in 18.1 overs for the loss of just four wickets. Rahul, meantime, was severely missing Yadav's services.

"McGurk was a relatively unknown player when they first arrived. We've seen a lot of films of him, but he really did hit the ball good, Rahul remarked.

"Mayank is not too bad; he looks good, feels good but we also want to make sure we don't rush him back in too early," Rahul added, providing an update on Yadav, whose breakaway pace has unsettled several batsmen in the IPL 2024.

Since he's still young, we must safeguard his body. Rahul, who scored 39 on Friday, continued, "He's itching to go, we just have to pull him back a little, maybe a couple more games, before he comes back."

The captain of the home team acknowledged that his squad was well short of 20 runs.

"We ought to have capitalized to reach 180, but we were only 15-20 short. Seamers received some assistance, odd-ball was kept low, and Kuldeep (Yadav) stopped our batting lineup. We battled until the very end." Kuldeep, who returned figures of 3/20 in four overs, was the most successful bowler for DC.

"Rishabh-McGurk stole it away from us after a dropped catch kept us in the game until the tenth over. "Looking back, we may have made a different decision (about Nicholas Pooran's batting position)," Rahul remarked.

Frazer-McGurk claimed he was growing impatient as a bench warmer and that he had liked his batting on Friday.

"I was thrilled to be able to play after spending five and a half games on the sidelines. Basically, it was just about attempting to avoid losing form by swinging too hard. I have spent the last twelve months doing just that.

"I'm thrilled to be here; cricket is a whole new universe here. I've never seen anything like that, so being able to enjoy it for eight weeks—and maybe longer—is incredible," the Australian continued.

Player of the Match winner Kuldeep claimed he had been hurt in his first IPL match but had continued to play in the second, which made his condition worse and forced him to miss the next three games.

"Was wounded in the first game and wasn't well for a few games. Seeing the team struggle in the middle overs was tough. The execution was correct today. As a spinner, length is quite important, therefore I was very clear about my objective," Kuldeep remarked.

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