IPL 2018: Special' Mayank Markande earns Mahela Jayawardene's praise

Mumbai: Dwayne Bravo pulled off an absolute heist to spoil Mumbai Indians’ party and stole everyone’s thunder as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) made a memorable comeback to the Indian Premier League (IPL), beating Mumbai Indians in the IPL opener here on Saturday.

While MI eventually had a night to forget, one MI cricketer won everyone’s plaudits; their young leg-spinner from Punjab, Mayank Markande.

MI unearthed the 20-year-old tweaker during their pre-IPL trials and then bought him for Rs 20 lakh during the IPL auction. He repaid the MI management’s faith in him and scalped three wickets, including the MS Dhoni LBW dismissal, for twenty runs in his four-over spell and gave MI a chance to defend the 165-run total.

MI coach and former Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene lauded the young leggie during the post-match press conference.

“I thought he bowled brilliantly, we backed him when we saw him first at our camp. We knew that he was special... he came for two trial games for us, both him and (Rahul) Chahar. We backed our youngsters. We knew that this is the year we had to do that. The stadium was packed against CSK and he bowled well, I am pleased for him,” said Jayawardene when asked about Markande’s performance in the first game of the eleventh edition of the tournament.

Jayawardene pointed out that Markande’s accuracy and control over variations as key components to his success on his IPL debut.

“I think it is the accuracy. He is quite accurate and probably a bit different to a normal leg-spinner as well. The way he delivers the ball, the control (that) he has with his variations, and he is very confident for a guy who has not played much T20 cricket. He has played lot of state cricket for Punjab. His attitude is great and we want to back those guys, give them an opportunity and see what happens,” concluded Jayawardene.