Published: May 08, 2023, 08:22 AM (IST)
Edited: May 08, 2023, 08:22 AM (IST)
New Delhi: Rajasthan Royals star spinner Yuzvendra Chahal was on fire on Sunday (May 7) during his team’s 11th match of the ongoing IPL 2023 season. Playing in front of the Royals home fans against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the SMS Stadium in Jaipur, Chahal created history by becoming the joint-leading wicket-taker in IPL history.
The 32-year-old, who was playing his 142nd match in the cash-rich league, dismissed four batters for 29 runs in his quota of four overs to keep RR in the hunt, but his effort went in vain as the Orange Army chased down the record total of 215 runs on the last ball of the match to seal an impossible-looking win.
Even though the result of the game didn’t end up in the Royals favour, they had something to cheer about in the form of Chahal’s record feat. Chahal joined RR in the mega auctions last year and finished as the leading wicket-taker. This season as well, he is the leading wicket-taker for RR and joint-second in the Purple Cap list with 17 wickets to his name.
Chahal, who had accounted for the dismissal of four SRH batters during RR’s first IPL match of 2023, repeated the same feat in the reverse fixture as well. And by taking four wickets, he equaled former West Indies all-rounder DJ Bravo’s record of 183 wickets in the IPL. Bravo, who played for teams like the Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, and Gujarat Lions during his IPL career, picked up a total of 183 wickets in 161 matches, but Chahal matched the same tally in 19 fewer games.
The Indian stalwart will have a chance to break Bravo’s record and become the all-time leading wicket-taker in the IPL when the Royals take on the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata during Match No. 56 of the IPL 2023.
Before the start of IPL 2023, Bravo was the leading wicket-taker in the IPL, and Sri Lanka legend Lasith Malinga, who represented MI as a player during his entire IPL career, was in second position with 170 wickets to his name from 122 matches, but now he has slipped to No. 6, and players like Piyush Chawla (174), Amit Mishra (171), and Ravichandran Ashwin (171) have leapfrogged him to enter the top five list.
