IPL 2020 RCB vs MI: With Virat Kohli's wicket, Jasprit Bumrah claims special T20 record
IPL 2020< RCB vs MI: With Virat Kohli’s wicket, Jasprit Bumrah claims special T20 record
Jasprit Bumrah, who is considered as one of the best pacers in the shortest format, claimed a Twenty20 (T20) record during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 match between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Wednesday.
Having won the toss, MI stand-in skipper Kieron Pollard chose to bowl. In the 12th over of the first innings, Bumrah reached 100 IPL wickets and 200 T20 wickets at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi. On the second ball of the over, Kohli chose to pull from outside off, but only managed a top edge that was caught by Saurabh Tiwary, who ran from short mid-wicket to complete the catch. Interestingly, Kohli was also Bumrah's maiden IPL wicket in 2013.
While Bumrah became the 12th Indian to 100 and more wickets in the IPL, he was the sixth Indian bowler to 200 and more T20 wickets and the first Indian pacer to the milestone. The other Indian bowlers to have picked 200-plus wickets in the shortest format are Piyush Chawla (257 wickets), Amit Mishra (256 wickets), Ravichandran Ashwin (244 wickets), Harbhajan Singh (235 wickets), and Yuzvendra Chahal (205 wickets).
Among the active Indian cricketers, other fast bowlers that are close to the 200-mark are Vinay Kumar (194 wickets), who plays for Pondicherry in the domestic circuit, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (185 wickets), Umesh Yadav (172 wickets), Umesh Yadav (148 wickets), and Sandeep Sharma (146 wickets).
On Wednesday, Bumrah bagged three wickets for MI against RCB and now, the MI pacer has 202 T20 wickets and 102 IPL wickets. The other wicket-takers for MI were Pollard, Trent Boult, and Rahul Chahar as RCB finished their 20 overs at 164 for 6. Opening batsman Devdutt Padikkal struck his fourth fifty of the season as he top-scored with his knock of 45-ball 74, including 12 fours and a six.
"Pretty happy with batting first, exactly what we wanted to do. Quite a few changes tonight. Saini misses out, Shivam Dube comes in. Josh Phillipe comes in for Aaron Finch and Dale Steyn comes in for Moeen Ali. Seemed pretty one-sided for the first couple of weeks and the teams in the lower half are fighting hard and it's important for us, we have been playing some consistent cricket and we have played well together as a team and tonight we are looking to execute our plans well," RCB captain Kohli said at the toss.
Having won seven matches from 11, RCB have 14 points and are currently placed second in the IPL 2020 points table. Their Wednesday's clash against table-toppers MI, who also have as many points but are ahead with a superior net run-rate. A win against MI would seal RCB's place in the playoffs.