MAYERS SHOWS HIS ADAPTABILITY TO TAKE THE IPL BY STORM

Kyle Mayers spent the entire 2022 Indian Premier League season watching on from the Lucknow Super Giants bench, but after a maiden Betway SA20 season the West Indies all-rounder has taken the new IPL season by storm.

Mayers was in fantastic form for Durban’ Super Giants – with both bat and ball – during the Betway SA20 season back in January and continued his red-hot streak during the international season against the Proteas in South Africa.

The flamboyant batter formed a power-packed opening partnership with Quinton de Kock at the top of the order for Durban’s Super Giants at Kingsmead, and ironically he is now keeping his DSG teammate out of the Lucknow Super Giants team due to his sparkling performances. 

The IPL employs the same rule related to overseas players as the Betway SA20 with only four allowed in the starting XI. 

Mayers has certainly, though, taken his opportunities with both hands with the left-hander striking his third half-century of the tournament on Wednesday evening. He struck a composed 51 off 40 balls on a tricky surface that enabled LSG to get up to 155/7, which was enough to sneak home by 10 runs against the table-toppers Rajasthan Royals.

It was uncharacteristic innings from the Barbadian, who usually attacks the bowling from the outset, as he had to reign in his natural attacking flair. It did, however, show that Mayers has the ability to adapt his game to the different conditions.

“I think I have been batting well, from international cricket and into this tournament,” Mayers said post-match.

“It (the pitch) was not best for stroke-play and I told myself early to not look for sixes and look for more boundaries. It was a difficult surface for any new batter to come in and start hitting. It was not the ideal innings, not innings that you dream of playing … 50 off 40 balls … I obviously like to be the aggressor at the top, but it was critical in the context of the game because I thought we were in a situation where I needed to bat more balls on a difficult surface. 

“I felt it (strike rate) was good, I tried to play the situation well, pick my match-ups and tried to capitalise. (On the pitch being two-paced) I think it was just low. It was not two-paced as much, it was more up-and-down bounce. Variable bounce was the hardest thing. It was about trying to hit the ball as straight as possible and access the off side.”

Mayers has now moved into eighth-place on the overall IPL 2023 runs-scorers list with 219 runs – just one run behind Indian legend Virat Kohli in seventh. Faf du Plessis leads the table with 259 runs.