Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan's return to the Indian Premier League (IPL) turned out to be a special one as he bowled Wriddhiman Saha on the very first delivery.
In the Kolkata outfit's opening fixture against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Chepauk, Shakib came into the attack in the third over and plucked Saha's wicket with a looped-up delivery. In an attempt to cut the ball, Saha misread Shakib's line and the ball took an inside edge before ruffling the woodwork.
The ex-Bangladesh skipper, playing against his old IPL franchise, conceded just one run off the over along with picking Saha's wicket.
Shakib, who was part of KKR title-winning campaigns in 2012 and 2014, played just three matches for Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2019. Since his ban ended in October last year, Shakib had played only for his domestic side Khulna in the Bangabandhu T20 Cup.
"I'm open to anything to be honest," Shakib, who was bought by KKR for INR 3.2 crore in the mini-auction, told PTI in a recent interview.
Earlier in the game, KKR top-order comprising Nitish Rana (80) and Rahul Tripathi (53) took SRH bowlers to the cleaners before the Afghanistan duo of Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi came to the rescue.
Rashid (2/24) and Nabi (2/32) led the way in the death overs, rescrting the Kolkata franchise from breaching the 200-run mark. In the end, Dinesh Karthik scored 22 off nine deliveries to get KKR close to the 190-run mark.
