The youngster returned with figures of 5/30 in 3.5 overs, which included a double-wicket maiden, as Lucknow Super Giants beat former champions Gujarat Titans by 33 runs at Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow.
A right-arm medium pacer from Kolkata, who plays for Vidarbha in domestic cricket, Thakur thus became the third bowler to bag a five-for against the Titans after Umran Malik (5/25) in Mumbai (Wankhede) in 2022 and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (5/30) in Ahmedabad, 2023.
For Super Giants, he is the second bowler to take a fifer, after Mark Wood’s 5/14 against Delhi Capitals in Lucknow last season. Thakur made his IPL debut against Chennai Super Kings at the Chepauk on April 3 last year and he has taken 19 wickets in 12 matches.
Thanks to his five-wicket haul against the Titans, the 25-year-old has now moved into to top 10 of the IPL 2024 wicket-takers chart, one dominated by pacers, with six scalps. As things stand, legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal, the leading wicket-taker with seven scalps, is the only spinner in the top ten.
Meanwhile, his strike partner Mayank Yadav, also with six wickets, went off the field due to a side strain after bowling only one over against the Titans. After the match, star all-rounder Krunal Pandya revealed that “he seemed okay”.
“I don’t know what is happening but I did have a brief couple of seconds’ chat – he seemed okay, which was quite a relief for us,” Pandya told the official broadcaster.
Thakur’s scalps included the prize of wicket of Shubman Gill. The youngster termed the castling of the Gujarat Titans captain “the most memorable of all.”
The visitors got off to a good start with Sai Sudharsan and Gill stitching a half-century opening stand in the fifth over. But Thakur provided the breakthrough with the wicket of Gill.