Harshal Patel, the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s new recruit, bagged a fifer in the opening match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
The 30-year-old tricked Mumbai with his slower ones and made it difficult for them to time the ball well.
Patel took the prized scalp of Hardik Pandya and Ishan Kishan by trapping them both plumb in front of their wickets.
While Ishan looked dangerous as he had scored 28 runs off 19 balls with two fours and a six, Pandya wasn’t allowed to settle in the crease and was dismissed at mere 13 runs.
The Haryana-born pacer went further with his exploits and picked up three wickets in the final over, missing his hattrick by only a ball.
When MI were looking to go in full beast mode, Patel slowed them by just conceding one run in the last over and showing Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya and Marco Jansen the way to the pavilion.
Man of the Match: Harshal Patel #MIvsRCB #IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/UNZGxrtBE5
— CricketTimes.com (@CricketTimesHQ) April 10, 2021
Having conceded just 27 runs in his four overs and taking a five-wicket haul, the right-armer broke Rohit Sharma’s record of taking the highest number of wickets in the match against MI.
Sharma had taken four wickets at only six runs against Mumbai when he played for Deccan Chargers in 2009.
Apart from breaking the 12-year-old record, Patel also registered the third-best bowling figures by an uncapped player in the IPL history, only next to Ankit Rajpoot and Varun Chakravarthy.
While Rajpoot had taken a fifer at only 14 runs in a match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in 2018, Chakravarthy wasn’t far behind as he took five scalps by giving 20 runs in a game against Delhi Capital (DC) in the previous edition of the cash-rich league.
RCB is set to play their next match against SRH on April 14 at the Chepauk Stadium.
