When the Rajasthan Royals (RR) defeated the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by nine wickets at the Eden Gardens on Thursday, May 11, Yashasvi Jaiswal arguably played the best innings of IPL 2023 so far.
The home team never really got going after being given the opportunity to bat first. Venkatesh Iyer used 42 deliveries to score 57 runs. In the first innings, Rajasthan’s Yuzvendra Chahal stole the show by taking four wickets, surpassing Dwayne Bravo to become the most successful wicket-taker in IPL history.
Given that the surface at Eden Gardens supports spinners and Kolkata had a lot of them, KKR could only manage 149/8 in their 20 overs, which appeared manageable at innings break.
However, Yashasvi Jaiswal was a completely different animal. He started by destroying KKR captain Nitish Rana, scoring 26 runs in the first over. He never looked back, going unbeaten on 98 of 47 deliveries since then. As the visitors chased down the total in just 13.1 overs, RR skipper Sanju Samson (48*) also played a useful knock.
On Thursday, there were numerous memorable occurrences that sparked interest among fans. In light of this, let’s examine three examples of this kind.
1) Yashasvi Jaiswal’s fastest 50
From the very first ball of the run chase, RR opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was on fire. He swindled each bowler, arriving at his 50 years in only 13 conveyances. To reach the milestone, he made seven sixes and three boundaries.
He beat KL Rahul and Pat Cummins to record the fastest fifty in competition history with that. In the span of 14 deliveries, they both reached the milestone.
Jaiswal eventually continued his unbeaten run total of 98 and increased his season total to 575 runs, one run short of Faf du Plessis, the tournament’s leading run scorer (576).
2) Sandeep Sharma’s diving catch
In RR’s most recent match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, senior pacer Sandeep Sharma turned out to be a bad guy. On the match’s final delivery, he bowled a no-ball, which cost his team the game.
However, on Thursday, the RR seam bowler made up for lost time by bowling out Sunil Narine in the 20th over. Yet, it was his jumping catch to excuse Rahmanullah Gurbaz that grabbed the eye of a large number.
With a few sixes in the fourth over that Sharma bowled, the Afghanistan wicketkeeper-batsman threatened to overwhelm the opposition. He penetrated one straight past the bowler, Trent Boult, in the following over yet couldn’t check the mid-off defender.
3) RR spinner Yuzvendra Chahal becoming the highest IPL wicket-taker
Yuzvendra Chahal, a senior legspinner, is a true IPL legend. He and Dwayne Bravo shared the competition record of 183 wickets when they entered the match on Thursday.
To take the lead, Chahal bowled out Nitish Rana with the second ball of his spell. He eventually got out with four wickets, bringing his total to 187.
As a result, the leg-spinner now leads the IPL 2023 list of highest wicket-takers, surpassing Mohammed Shami. He presently has 21 wickets, contrasted with Shami’s 19.