Article

IPL 2020: Mohammed Siraj got Virat’s advice that worked for him

Siraj was brilliant and showed his talent by bowling a spell dubbed as one of the best spells in IPL. #IPL2020 #RCB #IPL #Cricket

by
CricketFan
October 22, 2020

Match 39 Kings XI Punjab KXIP Vs Royal Challengers Bangalore RCB, Live Cricket Streaming

The RCB instant star, Mohammed Siraj surprised everyone and all fans on Wednesday night, by bowling a spell dubbed as one of the best spells in IPL. The Royal Challengers fast bowler produced 3 wickets for just eight runs from his quota of four overs, including two maidens making him the first bowler to do so.

Read |RCB Turn around in IPL2020

Mohammad Siraj pulled off one hell of a performance but him alone doesn’t deserve credit for his record breaking spell against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The credit also goes to Virat Kohli, the captain of RCB, for letting the youngster open the bowling for RCB. His opponents never anticipated such a move uptop.

Siraj revealed the actual moment when Virat handed over the bowl to him with a key advise.

Read | RCB Trashed by KKR with a huge margin

Siraj was never really used as a new ball bowler. it was probably due to his economy which is slightly on the higher side. He was delighted to be able to start the proceedings for RCB. He made sure that the opportunity at hand is not wasted and made the most out of it.

The match between RCB vs KKR had several all time lows in it. Lowest powerplay score, Lowest inning score and also a disasterous batting session from KKR. But the biggest cricket highlight was the record breaking two consective madien overs from the RCB pacer (siraj).

The first time any bowler has ever bowler two maiden overs in a row for any IPL team. Is 3/8 figures are his career best as well.

Royal Challengers Bangalore opted for Siraj in the match against KKR when he had only played four matches in the season for RCB. Not only Siraj managed to deliver 12 dot balls in a row but he also delivered 3 magic deliveries to dismantle three key KKR batsmen giving him never-seen-before figures of 2 overs, 2 maidens, 3 wickets, at one stage. It also meant that KKR was instantly playing for their survival after being 14/4 at one stage. KKR simply could not recover from the devastating position forced to be in by the RCB’s ace pacer.

Siraj stuck right away and took Rahul Tripathi’s wicket on his third ball with a deadly outswinger. Trupathi could only nick the ball to the keeper (AB de Villers) at the back. Siraj’s second prey was Nitish Rana, Siraj ripped off his off stump with a classic outswinger and Nitish missed the first ball he faced. Siraj’s over yealed a double wicket maiden for RCB.

Navdeep Saini also chipped in and instantly removed Shubman Gill, KKR was three down for jus three runs on the board. Tom Banton came to rescue from the aweful situation, and delivered a shot lived counter punch in the form of a four and a six to Saini in the same over. Banton’s brief effort could not last long enough as Siraj returned to strike once more and took Banton’s wicket.

Eoin Morgan, the new captain of KKR was KKR’s last hope after a dreadful start from the top order. KKR could only manage to get pass lowest IPL total ever (49),thanks to the captain’s knock of 30 runs. Morgan took the team to 50 runs milestone with a boundry. However, 15 overs had passed and KKR only had four wickets in hand to play out their quota of 20 overs.

It is rather ironic that KKR in 2017 had bowled out RCB for the lowest total ever of just 49 runs.

Kuldeep Yadav and Lockie Ferguson had a partnership of 27 runs. KKR managed to score 84 runs in total. Ferguson who was the star of the show in his last match, played a good hand with the bat to give themselves some thing to bowl at. New Zealand’s premier pacer Feruson took 3/15 in his last match against SRH (Sunrisers Hyderabad). He also bowled in super over and stuck twice to win the match for KKR. Which means He took 5 wickets in his last match.

RCB’s openers Devdutt Padikkal and Aaron Finch scored a quick 44 runs in the powerplay. Ferguson then came out to bowl and took Finch’s wicket who was caught behind due to the extra pace and enforced the Padikkal two balls’ run-out later. Virat Kohli came out to bat as a result and finished off the remaining runs with ease and confort. RCB won the match by a huge margin of 8 wickets.