Yuzvendra Chahal equals Lasith Malinga's IPL wickets tally: Key stats
Rajasthan Royals superstar Yuzvendra Chahal delivered a bowling masterclass against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Indian Premier League (IPL) opener at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Chahal finished with figures worth 4/17 helping his team win by 72 runs. The leg spinner has now matched Lasith Malinga's tally of 170 IPL wickets. Here are the key stats.
Chahal's heroics with the ball
Chahal was simply unplayable on the night as he scalped his fourth four-wicket haul in IPL. The 32-year-old outfoxed Harry Brook in his first over right after the powerplay. He then dismissed Mayank Agarwal, who was beaten by his flight. Adil Rashid went for a slog and was stumped. He later came back to remove Bhuvaneshwar Kumar to finish on a high.
Joint-second-highest wicket-taker in IPL
Chahal is now only behind Dwayne Bravo in terms of IPL scalps. Bravo finished his IPL journey with 183 scalps. Chahal raced to 170 scalps in 131 innings at 21.41. Malinga managed his wickets across 122 innings, nine lesser than Chahal. Chahal is now the leading wicket-taker amongst spinners, steering clear of Amit Mishra (166).
Most wickets against SRH in IPL
Chahal's heroics helped him race to 24 wickets against SRH in IPL. He has surpassed Dwayne Bravo's tally of 22 wickets to become the highest wicket-taker against SRH in IPL history. In 18 IPL matches, he has an average of 20.87 against them.
300 wickets in T20s
The 32-year-old Chahal owns 303 wickets in the T20 format. Notably, he is the 16th bowler to cross the landmark of 300 wickets in the shortest format. He is also India's highest wicket-taker in T20Is with 91 wickets in 75 matches at 24.68. He also became the first Indian bowler to enter the 300-wicket club and the eighth spinner in the elite club.
How did the match pan out?
After being asked to bat, RR openers smashed their highest powerplay score. Openers, Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal added 85 runs. Later Sanju Samson carried the innings forward as the visitors finished at 203/5. Fazalhaq Farooqi and T Natarajan picked two wickets each. In reply, SRH were reeling at 52/6 before finishing at 131/8 Besides Chahal, Kiwi pacer Trent Boult shined as well (2/21).
