Key points:
- In a game that saw many seasonal lows, the lowest power play score (17/4), and the lowest innings result (84/8).
- It also reduced Kolkata to 14/4, a role that in Abu Dhabi they will not rebound from.
- Siraj went back to nick off Banton and bowl his second straight maiden as well.
- Thanks to a last-gasp stand worth 27 runs among Kuldeep Yadav and Lockie Ferguson.
- The RCB openers, Devdutt Padikkal and Aaron Finch, had already scored 44 runs in the powerplay.
In a game that saw many seasonal lows, the lowest power play score (17/4), and the lowest innings result (84/8), one specific bowling high slipped under the radar due to a woeful batting display by Kolkata Knight Riders.
No bowler would have ever bowled two maidens in the same innings in the twelve-and-a-half seasons of the IPL so far.
With his first two overs, and inside the first four overs of the game on Wednesday, Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Mohammed Siraj, taken in to play just his fourth game of the edition, accomplished the unparalleled feat.
A Great Innings by RCB Bowlers:
Not only did Siraj, the right-arm seamer, bowl a dozen straight dot balls to start with; three of those deliveries also took wickets, giving him 2-2-0-3 figures haven’t never-seen-before at one point.
It also reduced Kolkata to 14/4, a role that in Abu Dhabi they will not rebound from.
The Day of Mohammed Siraj:
Siraj scored with just his third ball when opener Rahul Tripathi attempted to run down an outswinger to the third man.
He nicked the ball into AB de Villiers’ healthy mittens, instead. The left-handed Nitish Rana came in, whose appearance would have forced Siraj to change his line.
A wicked outswinger who straightened on pitching uprooted Rana’s off-stump first hit. A double-wicket maiden finished the over.
In the following over, when Navdeep Saini gets rid of Shubman Gill, KKR was 3 for 3, the worst three-wicket beginning to any IPL innings since 2013.
Tom Banton, the new batsman, struck Saini for a four and a six in the very same over, scoring two hits a little below eighth of the team average.
Though it didn’t last, Siraj went back to nick off Banton and bowled his second straight maiden as well, leaving KKR in full shambles.
Not a good Innings For KKR Bat’s Man:
If not for Eoin Morgan, the comparatively new skipper of the side who scored 30, KKR would have failed to go beyond the lowest IPL total of 49 ever that they had bowled RCB out for in 2017, interestingly.
As the team scored its 50th run, thanks to a unique boundary hit by Morgan, KKR’s camp heaved a sigh of relief, but this happened in the 15th over and with just four wickets in hand.
Thanks to a last-gasp stand worth 27 runs among Kuldeep Yadav and Lockie Ferguson, bowlers who were really giving themselves valuable runs to defend, KKR reached a total of 84.
Currently, Ferguson, in red-hot bowling form, came into this contest. The Kiwi rapid had taken 3/15 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in its only IPL match directly before this, followed by 2/2 in the ensuing Super Over. In 27 balls, that’s five wickets.
The RCB openers, Devdutt Padikkal and Aaron Finch, had already scored 44 runs in the powerplay by the time Ferguson was called on to bowl in this innings. Almost instantly, he dismissed Finch, caught behind because of the extra pace, and imposed the run-out of Padikkal two balls later.
But Virat Kohli, who did brief work on what was left of Gurkeerat Singh, came in, and RCB won with eight wickets to spare.
