IPL 2021: Harshal Patel Castles Kane Williamson With An Off-cutter

Royal Challengers Bangalore(RCB) pacer Harshal Patel has added another wicket to his Purple Cap list. And it’s the big scalp of the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper, Kane Williamson, on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.

On the third ball of the 12th over of SRH’s innings, Harshal Patel castled Williamson with a slower off-cutter. A 121 kph off-cutter, landing short of length outside the off stump, came into Williamson as the right-hander made room to hit it on the offside.

The SRH skipper, however, couldn’t connect well, as he was early into his shot with the ball taking a feather of an inside edge and went on to hit the top of the middle stump, ending Williamson’s innings of 31 runs.

Harshal Patel now has 27 wickets this season. Only Jasprit Bumrah in 2020 and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in 2017 are the Indian bowlers to take 27 wickets in an IPL season. Harshal Patel is closing in on Dwayne Bravo’s tally of 32 wickets which the CSK pacer recorded in 2013.

Bowlers bring RCB back in the game

After being put in to bat first, Abhishek Sharma started off briskly hitting George Garton for a six and a four before dismissed the left-hander. Kane Williamson dealt in boundaries early on, picking four fours – two on the off and two on leg side – in the first ten balls he faced in his innings.

At the other end, Jason Roy would stroke a couple of boundaries to cap off the powerplay at 50/1. The Englishman would continue to attack the RCB bowlers, disdainfully pulling Harshal Patel, but then Yuzvendra Chahal and Shahbaz Ahmed were successful in decreasing the run rate as SRH reached 76/1 at the 10-over mark.

Harshal Patel returned in the 12^th over to castle Kane Williamson, who scored 31 runs off 29 balls and perished looking to up the run rate. Priyam Garg would launch Chahal for a maximum before falling to Daniel Christian, who would also dismiss Roy (44 off 38) with a brilliant return catch. At the time of writing, RCB are 107/4.

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IPL 2021: Harshal Patel Castles Kane Williamson With An Off-cutter