Rajasthan Royals speedster Trent Boult achieved a very special 100 during his team's Qualifier 2 against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Boult continued his love-affair with the first-over wickets as he snared another one in the opening over by removing Abhishek Sharma.
The left-arm speedster continued his good show and scalped a couple of more wickets in the powerplay. These scalps now see Boult achieving a special milestone. The Kiwi star has now become only the third bowler in T20 cricket's history to take 100-plus wickets in the powerplay. Boult had 98 wickets to his name before the SRH vs RR clash.
Boult joins India's Bhuvneshwar Kumar and England's David Willey on the elite list of players with over 100 wickets in the format.
Most wickets in powerplay in T20 cricket:
1 - David Willey: 128 wickets
2 - Bhuvneshwar Kumar: 118 wickets
3 - Trent Boult: 101 wickets
4 - Mohammad Amir: 98 wickets
5 - Shaheen Shah Afridi: 86 wickets
Boult's three wickets were crucial for RR jolting SRH early in the innings. Boult first removed Abhishek on a length ball that bounced more than expected as the batter miscued his shot to backward point. He then removed Rahul Tripathi with a slower ball before getting Aiden Markram in the 5th over.
He bowled three overs in the powerplay and one at death. Boult was a bit expensive as he ended his day with the figures of 3/45. The Sunrisers posted a strong total of 175/9 with a solitary half-century from Heinrich Klaasen. Rahul Tripathi played a good cameo of 37 from 15 balls but that came before he was dismissed in the powerplay. RR bowlers pulled things well and did not let SRH go anywhere near 200.
SRH's Playing XI:
Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Reddy, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Abdul Samad, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, T Natarajan
RR's Playing XI:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Rovman Powell, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal
