Pacer Mohammed Siraj’s fiery opening spell, which featured the first ever double maiden by a bowler in Indian Premier League history, set up Royal Challengers Bangalore’s dominant eight-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday.
Siraj virtually killed the contest, running through the KKR top order in a stunning display of swing bowling. He ended with figures of 4-2-8-3 with consecutive wicket maiden overs.
Watch: Siraj becomes first to bowl two maiden overs in an IPL game with sensational double-strike
After Siraj’s furious display, leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (2/15) squashed any hopes of a KKR revival as as RCB restricted them to their second lowest total of 84/8. In reply, RCB completed the formalities in 13.3 overs, securing their seventh win from 10 matches and moved up a place to second in the table with 14 points.
They sealed the win with 39 balls to spare, a second massive win after securing a 82-run over KKR win in the first match between the two sides.
It was a forgettable day for KKR who produced a slew of dubious records that included registering the lowest score in a 20-over IPL innings without a team getting bowled out. It was for the first time a team played four maiden overs in a T20 innings. They also scored their lowest Powerplay score of 17/4. It was KKR’s second-lowest total after their 67 all-out against Mumbai Indians in 2008.
Playing without Windies star players Sunil Narine and Andre Russell, KKR struggled to get going after electing to bat and it was all over for them after skipper Eoin Morgan was dismissed by Washington Sundar for 30.
It was a masterstroke from skipper Kohli to include Siraj in place of spinner Shahbaz Nadeem keeping in mind a fresh strip. Siraj began with a double wicket maiden over in which he dismissed opener Rahul Tripahi (1) and Nitish Rana (0) off successive deliveries.
He followed it up with another wicket-maiden over, getting rid of Tom Banton (10) in the process. His figures read an astonishing 2-1-0-3 at that time.
Tripathi nicked one straight back to AB de Villiers behind the stumps and in the next ball Siraj ran through the gates of Rana for a golden duck. In his next over, he accounted for hard-hitting English batsman Tom Banton (10) with a scrambled seam delivery to cap the best ever opening two overs in the IPL.
In between, Navdeep Saini (1/23 from thee overs) dismissed the in-form opener Shubman Gill (1) after the young opener mis-timed a pull to be caught by Chris Morris as KKR looked in shambles with 14/4 inside four overs.
KKR had their most-experienced batsmen in Morgan and Karthik in the middle. But Chahal exposed latter’s woes against leg-spin bowling as he trapped him leg before following a successful review.
In the chase, RCB lost their opener Aaron Finch (16) after the Powerplay overs with Lockie Ferguson striking in his first over. Devdutt Padikkal (25) was run out as RCB lost two wickets in the same over.
But skipper Virat Kohli (18 not out) and Gurkeerat Singh (21 not out) ensured that there were no more hiccups.
With PTI Inputs