An absolute jaffa - any new-ball bowler's dream delivery - that castled Virat Kohli for a rare duck to set it up. A miserly double-wicket over when a 95-run stand threatened to take the game away in the middle-phase followed. The batters dismissed: Devdutt Padikkal - one of RCB's two mainstays in run-chases, and Jitesh Sharma - the wrecker-in-chief in RCB's highest ever chase in their previous visit to Lucknow. To cap it off, a decent penultimate over given the game situation, against Romario Shepherd who has been striking at 304.76 in the last two overs of an innings in the IPL since 2024.

Prince Yadav's brilliance across phases against RCB on Friday wasn't an anomaly, but a consistent feature and the biggest positive in LSG's otherwise dismal run. With 16 scalps, he's the joint second-highest wicket taker in IPL 2026, the next most for LSG is Mohsin Khan's 10. Of the 22 seamers to have delivered at least 25 overs in the tournament, he has the second-best average (18.68) and the third best economy rate (8.08).

The right-arm quick has been a go-to man for LSG across various stages of the game: of the 44 bowlers to have delivered at least 20 overs in the tournament, he has the most even split of overs across the three junctures: 37.8% with the new ball, 29.8% in the middle and 32.4% at death.

Prince Yadav by phases in IPL 2026

To put things into perspective, the overall economy rate for the season in the three phases has been 9.87, 9.2 and 10.54 respectively. The standout feature of Prince's productivity has been the adjustment in length. With the new ball, 73.8% of his deliveries have either been at a good length or back-of-a-length - the conventional zone - giving him returns of 6/67 (ER: 6.5). He's got the movement both ways in the air: 3/22 with the inswinger, including the one to breach Kohli's defence on Friday (bowled at 138.8 kmph), and 2/30 with the one going away.

In the middle-phase, the hard lengths have done the maximum damage: 4/20 (ER: 5.7), with the ones from a good length too, yielding 2/24 (ER: 7.2). Both Padikkal and Jitesh were undone by the deliveries pitched in the former zone, none of the six in that over offering any room for the batter, just one pitched up. At the back end, he leans more towards full - 46% compared to 20% across the first 15 - the 17 yorkers executed successfully having gone at exactly run-a-ball.

He has had an equal number of wickets at home or away: eight apiece at almost identical strike-rates, the economy in away games rising to 9 from 7.21 at home - the former still a decent reading given the overall tournament trends. Left-handers (SR: 162.6) have gone at a higher strike-rate than right-handers (SR: 151.63) in the season overall; Prince has had impressive economy rates against both: 8.57 against lefties (roughly a SR of 136.9) and 7.78 against righties (roughly a SR of 123.9).

With Prince leading the way, LSG have had a significant upgrade in their seam bowling numbers from last season, especially with the new ball. Mohammed Shami has four first-over wickets in IPL 2026, Prince has had three while bowling the second of the innings. Friday saw the first instance of RCB losing their first two wickets for less than 10 runs on the board since 2023. It was also the first time that the defending champions were restricted to a sub-50 score in the first six overs in IPL 2026. There have been 21 scores of 45 or lower in Overs 1-6 in the competition, five of them against LSG. Even with a resilient fightback from a team that bats deep, the damage inflicted earlier proved to be enough.

LSG seamers across IPL 2025 and 2026 (ranked among the 10 teams)

LSG were a destructive, top-heavy batting unit in IPL 2025, but the seamers endured a miserable run. While the latter has been redeemed, constant changes in the batting order have led to a massive dip on that front. With four games to go, LSG mathematically remain in the contention for the playoffs. The skipper however, has already expressed that he aims to "figure it out for the next season". For now, the seam attack, led by Prince, keeps the bowling department in a good stead.