Kolkata Knight Riders fast bowler Umesh Yadav, on Friday against Punjab Kings, became only the fourth bowler ever in the history of the IPL to claim 50 wickets in the powerplay. Umesh achieved this feat in the first over of the match when he dismissed PBKS skipper Mayank Agarwal.
Only three bowlers before Umesh have taken 50 or more IPL wickets in the powerplay: Zaheer Khan (52), Sandeep Sharma (52) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (51) have picked up more wickets than Umesh (50) in the first six overs in the IPL.
Bhuvneshwar, who has been a force to reckon with the new ball in hand, has the best economy – 5.93 – in the powerplay among these four bowlers.
Umesh had, in fact, gone unsold in the first round of the mega-auction before KKR snapped him for his base price of 2 crore in the next rounds. He has been stunning, a proper match-winner in KKR’s three games so far with the new ball in hand. That has also boosted confidence in him to come in later spells and pick wickets – as he did against Punjab by scalping three wickets in his second and third spell and finished with figures of 4/23, his best in the IPL.
With 8 wickets now in 3 matches, the Vidharba pacer has the Purple Cap on his head; he’s picked those at a brilliant economy of 4.91.
“Feels very happy and lively. Coming back after a long time and doing well feels sweet. To do things that you wish for, it’s a great feeling. My job is to do well in the powerplay and take wickets. If I do that, it benefits the team,” Umesh said after his four-wicket haul versus PBKS.
Umesh’s four-fer, supported by Southee’s brace, and tight bowling from spinners Varun Chakaraverthy and Sunil Narine restricted Punjab Kings to a below-par score of 137, which KKR chased down with more than 5 overs to spare and 6 wickets in hand.
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