In a moment that will be replayed for years to come, young Lucknow Super Giants pacer Prince Yadav etched his name into IPL history with a spell that left fans and pundits in awe. Under the floodlights of a damp Lucknow evening, the 22-year-old produced a delivery that clean bowled none other than Virat Kohli for a duck, making him just the 11th bowler in IPL history to achieve the feat—and only the second to bowl the RCB legend out for zero since Dhawal Kulkarni in 2016.
The dismissal came in the second over of Royal Challengers Bengaluru's chase of 210. A fiery 140-kmph delivery, seam upright and wrist firm, jagged back sharply, breached Kohli's defense, and crashed into off stump. The stadium fell silent, then erupted in shock. For Kohli, it was his first IPL duck since April 2023, and for Prince, it was the stuff of dreams.
But the young pacer wasn't done. That headline act was backed by a disciplined spell that showcased pace, variations, and composure beyond his years. Prince finished with three wickets, controlling key phases of the innings and climbing to third in the Purple Cap race. With 16 wickets from 10 games, he sits just one behind leaders Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Anshul Kamboj. More importantly, his heroics snapped LSG's six-match losing streak, keeping their playoff hopes flickering.
Despite the enormity of the moment, Prince remained grounded. "I'm really happy to have taken the wicket, but the thing I'm most happy about is that we won the match. If I had taken the wicket and we had lost, I wouldn't be, so the best thing is that the team won," he said. He added that the win validated the belief within the squad. "The atmosphere in the dressing room was good before, and is good now as well. Winning and losing happens in cricket, but our team is always putting in the effort. We're just thinking match-by-match, and we'll try our best."
Praise also came from the opposition camp. RCB captain Rajat Patidar, who has seen Prince closely in domestic cricket, acknowledged the threat the young bowler poses. For LSG fans, this performance is a reminder of the excitement young talent brings to the game—and a moment that will be celebrated every time Prince takes the field in that blue jersey.