Mayank Yadav: From hearing tales of Curtly Ambrose from his father to idolising Dale Steyn, and being known as ‘helmet pe maarne waale bowler’ in Delhi circuit | Cricket News
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 …