Rajasthan Royals opening batter Yashasvi Jaiswal made his way into the history books as he became the player to score the fastest half century in the Indian Premier League against Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday.
Chasing 149, Jaiswal started like a house on fire as he scored 50 in just 13 balls, whooshing past KL Rahul’s 14-ball half century in 2018. He also eclipsed KKR’s Pat Cummins who scored a 14-ball half ton in 2022.
As soon as he came to the crease, Jaiswal let his intentions known as he hit 2 sixes and 3 fours off Nitish Rana’s first over before reaching his milestone with a hattrick of fours off Shardul Thakur.
Jaiswal would ultimately end with 98 runs and even hit the winning boundary as Rajasthan demolished Kolkata by 9 wickets, finishing the chase in just 13.1 overs.
Earlier, Yuzvendra Chahal became IPL’s leading wicket-taker before completing a brilliant four-wicket haul as Rajasthan Royals restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to a below-par 149 for eight.
On a day RR dished out an eye-grabbing fielding display, Chahal grabbed two wickets in three balls when he dismissed KKR topscorer Venkatesh Iyer (57; 42b) and Shardul Thakur (1) in the middle overs before ending with figures of 4-0-25-4.
Chahal (187 wickets) eclipsed Dwayne Bravo (183) to become the all-time leading wicket-taker of the IPL when he struck off his second ball to dismiss KKR skipper Rana (22; 17b).
He ended his spell dismissing the inform Rinku Singh (16) to also become the leading wicket-taker this season with 21 wickets.
Put in on a dry Eden wicket, KKR frontline batters came a cropper, as Venkatesh held the fort and returned to form with a fighting fifty.
