West Indian opener Kyle Mayers scored 73 off 38 deliveries as he steered the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) to a flying start in their first game of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season against the Delhi Capitals (DC).
The southpaw hit seven sixes and struck two boundaries as he made up for skipper KL Rahul’s early dismissal by taking the Capitals’ bowlers to the cleaners at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
Interestingly, Mayers had a rather quiet powerplay as Lucknow was struck at 30/1 at the end of six overs with the 30-year-old scoring only 17 off 17 deliveries until that point in time. However, he accelerated straight from the seventh over onwards and hit multiple maximums off Mukesh Kumar, Axar Patel, and Kuldeep Yadav.
Patel eventually got the better of him by bowling him over in the 12th over but Lucknow had already gotten to 100 till then with Mayers scoring the bulk of those runs.
Twitterati naturally went berserk at the knock and here are some of the most viral reactions to his innings.
https://twitter.com/mufaddal_vohra/status/1642179282666651650?s=20
https://twitter.com/CricCrazyJohns/status/1642178953434767360?s=20
https://twitter.com/Fancricket12/status/1642177745714049029?s=20
https://twitter.com/IPL/status/1642176178248380416?s=20
https://twitter.com/CricCrazyJohns/status/1642176125295288322?s=20
https://twitter.com/kaustats/status/1642181334515998721?s=20
https://twitter.com/cricbuzz/status/1642181507803676672?s=20
https://twitter.com/WisdenIndia/status/1642180007975092224?s=20
https://twitter.com/abdullah_0mar/status/1642177602160046084?s=20
https://twitter.com/OneCricketApp/status/1642188198129602561?s=20
https://twitter.com/NikUttam/status/1642180597681475585?s=20
https://twitter.com/cric_blog/status/1642174565836259328?s=20
https://twitter.com/APTalksCricket/status/1642177533696446464?s=20
https://twitter.com/vlp1994/status/1642177860730499073?s=20
https://twitter.com/Narbavi/status/1642177182704492545?s=20
Lucknow will now face the uphill task of accommodating Mayers in the XI when South African opener Quinton de Kock joins the squad after rounding off his international commitments. The 30-year-old finished at the third spot in the run-scoring charts last year.
He finished the season at 508 runs in 15 matches and will be a definite starter in the XI to partner Rahul at the top. Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, and Mark Wood will most likely occupy the other three overseas spots and that doesn’t leave a space for Mayers on the side. Regardless, the Caribbean star has made a strong case for his inclusion in the team in case the think-tank looks to shake things up at any point in this campaign.
First Published: Apr 1, 2023 9:55 PM IST
