Yuzvendra Chahal five wicket haul for RR

A sensational bowling display by Yuzvendra Chahal at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai stunned everyone as the spinner took a five-wicket haul along with an outstanding hat-trick to turn the match on its head completely. The spinner’s performance led RR to a thrilling 7-run victory over the dominant KKR. The game went down to the wire, but Rajasthan Royals held their nerves as they won the match after bowling out the opponents for 210 in 19.4 overs.

The magical 17th over

When Chahal came into the attack in the 17th over, the game seemed to be in KKR’s grip firmly, with 40 runs needed only in four overs with six wickets in hand. The skipper Shreyas Iyer was batting in the 80s with Venkatesh Iyer on the other end. Both the batters were firmly set on the crease, and RR desperately needed a wicket to get into the game. But Chahal got Venkatesh Iyer off the very first delivery, lifting hopes of RR. The batter stepped out to smack a well-tossed-up delivery out of the park but was fixed by a googly and ended up getting stumped! 

The hat-trick which demolished KKR!

Even after his wicket, KKR were in control with Shreyas Iyer in the middle, and they just had to play the leg spinner out. But they were completely unaware of Chahal’s intelligence. Off the fourth bowl, he bowled a fuller ball. In an attempt to work the ball across the line, KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer missed the line only to get trapped in front of the stumps. On the fifth delivery, he dismissed Shivam Mavi. On the sixth ball, which was a hat trick ball, he bowled a typical leg-spin delivery which turned away from Pat Cummin’s bat only to edge it, and the Wicket keeper didn’t miss the chance. Thus, Chahal completed his hat-trick and then followed it up with a classical celebration in his style.

“It is an amazing feeling because I’ve never had a hat-trick in my entire career, so I was thinking that I should be bowling a googly. But I remembered that in the Lucknow match, Avesh hit me for a six, and I did not want to take a chance, so I thought that let’s bowl a leg-spin only, and it might go for a dot bowl,” said Yuzvendra Chahal.

The hat-trick was Chahal’s first hat-trick in the league. It was the 21st hat-trick in the IPL and fifth by Royal’s bowler after Ajit Chandila, Pravin Tambe, Shane Watson, and Shreyas Gopal.