IPL 2021: Watch- Harshal Patel Of RCB Runs Through MI Lineup With 5/27

Gujarat’s Harshal Patel was traded to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) along with Daniel Sams from Delhi Capitals (DC) during the IPL 2021 auction trade window. Patel had previously played for the RCB team and was determined to do well for the Virat Kohli-led franchise again in IPL 2021.

In the first match of the IPL 2021, Harshal Patel did the same, as Mumbai Indians (MI) faced off against RCB at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai. Virat Kohli won a rare toss and chose to bowl first given that the Chepauk pitch’s nature.

The match saw Chris Lynn making his MI debut, while Marco Jansen made his IPL debut. On the RCB side, Kyle Jamieson and Rajat Patidar made their IPL debuts, while Dan Christian played an IPL game for RCB after 8 years and Glenn Maxwell made his RCB debut.

Harshal Patel Becomes The First Bowler To Take A Five-Wicket Haul Against Mumbai Indians (MI)

Harshal Patel was preferred by Virat Kohli over Navdeep Saini to partner Kyle Jamieson and Mohammed Siraj in the RCB fast bowling attack. And at the end of RCB innings, all the three bowlers fared well with Siraj giving just 22 runs in his 4 overs and Jamieson picking one wicket o his debut and ending with 1/27 in his four overs.

But the innings belonged to Harshal Patel, who gave away 11 runs in his first over as Chris Lynn and Suryakumar Yadav went after him. However, Virat Kohli kept his overs for the death bowling and he returned in the 16^th over and dismissed Hardik Pandya with a slower in-dipper, catching him plumb LBW.

His next victim was Ishan Kishan, who was dismissed in the same fashion, going for a fancy shot. However, Harshal kept the best for the last over of MI innings.

He removed Krunal Pandya on the first ball of the 20^th over, caught by Christian. On the second ball of the over, he had Kieron Pollard caught by Washington Sundar for 7 runs. He narrowly missed a hat-trick when his yorker went down the leg-side against Marco Jansen but dismissed him with a perfect yorker the very next ball.

He finished the over by giving away just one run and became only the third bowler to do so in IPL. Before him, Praveen Kumar and Dale Steyn were the only bowlers to give away one run in the last over of an innings.

Not only this, Harshal Patel made IPL history by becoming the first bowler to pick five wickets against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the 14^th edition of the tournament.

Also Read: IPL 2021: Twitter Erupts As Harshal Patel Claims His Maiden Five-Wicket Haul 

Here are the highlights of his five-wicket haul: