Speedster Mohammed Siraj became the first bowler in the history of Indian Premier League to bowl two maiden overs as he rocked Kolkata Knight Riders top-order with 3 wickets in the powerplay in Abu Dhabi.
Thanks to Siraj’s exceptional bowling performance, Royal Challengers Bangalore restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to a paltry score of 84 for 8 in the 39th match of the Dream11 IPL at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old returned with figures of three wickets for no runs from his first two overs. The Hyderabad-based quickie rattled KKR in the first four overs of their innings as he sent back opener Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana and Tom Banton in his first couple of overs without conceding a run. He gave away a run only in his third over and finished his first spell of three overs with figures of 3-2-2-3.
Deciding to bat first proved a wrong decision by new skipper Eoin Morgan as they were put on the backfoot straightway by Siraj’s lengths and line.
Tripathi (1) was caught behind by AB de Villiers off the third ball of the second over of the innings and Rana (0) was cleaned up by a perfect inswinger on the very next ball.
Tom Banton foiled Siraj’s hopes of a hat-trick but the England batsman could not last long as Siraj got him caught behind as well for 10.
KKR were reeling at 3 for 3 in the fourth over when Shubman Gill holed out to Chris Morris off Navdeep Saini. Soon after Banton was dismissed making it 14 for 4 in the fourth over.
RCB are placed third on the points table with 12 points from nine matches while KKR are fourth with 10 points.
Barely 10 days after being decimated by AB de Villiers, KKR are set to face a second consecutive defeat.
RCB made a solitary change, bringing in Siraj while KKR made a couple as they replaced Andre Russell with Tom Banton. Pacer Prasidh Krishna replaced young Shivam Mavi as the former two-time champions were playing without both Russell and Sunil Narine in the XI for the first time since 2012.
Brief scores
Kolkata Knight Riders 84 for 8 in 20 overs (Eoin Morgan 30, Lockie Ferguson 19 not out, Kuldeep Yadav 12; Mohammed Siraj 3-8, Yuzvendra Chahal 2-15, Washington Sundar 1-14, Navdeep Saini 1-23) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Courtesy: orangecitysports.com
