STATS HIGHLIGHTS
Follow UsOn the back of a stunning victory in their first encounter against RCB, Punjab Kings walked out with all the intent in the world, but the gung-ho approach backfired as they were demolished by the Knight Riders at the Wankhede. After being inserted into bat, 18.2 overs was all Punjab lasted as they were blown away by the Knight Riders’ pacers, led by Umesh Yadav (4/23).
In response, chasing 138, the Knight Riders endured a roadblock after being reduced to 51/4, but a stunning onslaught from Andre Russell (70* off 31) ensured that Shreyas Iyer’s side registered their second win of the season in style, getting home with more than 5 overs to spare.
The thumping result has now propelled the Knight Riders to the top of the table.
Bhanuka Rajapaksa’s all-time-great cameo
Against RCB, Bhanuka Rajapaksa had a debut to remember as he smashed a 22-ball 43 and set up the chase for the Kings. But on Friday at the Wankhede, somehow, the Lankan superstar ended up bettering that effort.
Walking into bat in the second over, after the team lost skipper Mayank Agarwal early, Rajapaksa went 4 4 1 1LB 4 6 6 6, playing one of the most explosive cameos in the competition’s history.
His nine-ball stay at the crease yielded 31 runs. In IPL’s 14-year history, only 4 other batters have scored more runs in the first 9 balls of an innings.
Umesh brings up a special half-century
With two powerplay wickets each in his first two games of the season, Umesh Yadav kick-started IPL 2022 with a bang. And once again on Friday, the veteran set the tone early on, scalping the huge wicket of Mayank Agarwal on the very sixth ball of the innings. Umesh stuck to his Test match lines/lengths and was rewarded for it as Mayank got trapped right in front.
In the process, the 34-year-old ended up bringing up a special half-century. Yes, with the wicket of Mayank, Umesh became only the fourth bowler in IPL history to pick 50 or more wickets in the powerplay. Remarkably, among the four, his strike rate of 22.4 is the best.
Tim Southee creates history
Not just Umesh, another KKR seamer brought up a special milestone at the Wankhede on Friday. Tim Southee dismissed Shikhar Dhawan and Shahrukh Khan to become the first New Zealander in history to pick 250 T20 wickets. Looking at the list, it won’t be a surprise if he ends up hogging the first spot for a long, long while.
Kagiso Rabada shines with the bat
As it turned out, KKR ended up chasing the target set by Punjab rather comfortably, with 33 balls to spare. But the game would have been over a lot sooner had it not been for Kagiso Rabada’s cameo. Walking in at 102/8 in the 15th over, Rabada, out of nowhere, smashed a 16-ball 25 to temporarily rattle the Knight Riders. In particular, he took a liking to Southee, smashing the veteran Kiwi for four, four and six in consecutive balls.
Sadly, Rabada ended up falling agonizingly short of what would have been an all-time record in the IPL. Four more runs and he would have held the record for the highest individual score by a No.10 batter in the competition’s history.
A forgettable run with the ball for Odean Smith
Odean Smith was awarded Man of the Match on IPL debut for his exploits with the bat, but something that was overlooked was the fact that he conceded 52 runs off the 4 overs he bowled. Today, the Jamaican ended up bowling an even worse spell as he conceded 39 off 2 overs, including a 30-run over in which ‘Dre Russ’ smashed him to smithereens.
But these are no longer just ‘one or two bad’ games. Dating back to September 14, 2021, in games in which he’s bowled at least 2 overs, Smith has conceded at over 10 runs per over in all but one game.
An alarming stat, to say the least.
Dre Russ flexes his muscles
After two ordinary seasons (by his standards), it does seem like Andre Russell is back to his best. Certainly, there were glimpses of peak Russell in his knock against the Punjab Kings today.
At 51/4 chasing 138, the Knight Riders were in all sorts. One more wicket and the game would have opened up for the Kings. However, that one wicket never came as Russell blasted a stunning 31-ball 70*, that included 8 humongous sixes, to drive his side home.
This was Russell’s highest individual score in a chase. Not only that, this was also the third highest individual score of the Big Jamaican’s IPL career.
Relentless Varun and Narine
In IPL 2021, the Knight Riders essentially reached the final on the back of some ludicrously consistent bowling from the duo of Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine.
It’s 2022 and the duo are still choking batters game in and game out.
So far in IPL 2022, Narine and Chakravarthy have combinedly bowled 6 spells (of 4 overs each). In that, only spell has been more than run-a-ball.
Today, while Narine conceded just 23 off his 4 overs, the PBKS batters could only take 14 runs off the 24 balls bowled by Varun.
The rarest of rare occurrences
Friday’s clash between PBKS and KKR witnessed not one, but two double-wicket maidens - one from Umesh Yadav in the 15th over of the first innings, and one from Rahul Chahar in the seventh over of the chase.
In IPL’s 14-year history, only once has this phenomenon occurred previously (two double-wicket maidens in the same game). That was during the Qualifier 1 between Delhi and Mumbai in IPL 2020, where Boult and Bumrah bowled double-wicket maidens.
