Yuzvendra Chahal has etched his name into the history books as the Rajasthan Royals spin wizard has become the first player in the history of the Indian Premier League to take 200 wickets in the tournament. Chahal achieved the never-before-seen milestone during RR's game against Mumbai Indians at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
Chahal got MI's Mohammad Nabi caught and bowled in his first over of the innings as he deceived the Afghan batter with a leg-spin that was flighted on middle and leg. The batter went early in his shot and got a leading edge to the left of Chahal, who grabbed to complete his milestone wicket. Chahal now has 200 wickets in 153 matches of the tournament. Notably, the second-highest wicket-taker in the competition is Dwayne Bravo, who has 183 scalps.
Most wickets in IPL history:
1 - Yuzvendra Chahal: 200* wickets in 153 matches
2 - Dwayne Bravo: 183 wickets in 161 matches
3 - Piyush Chawla: 181 wickets in 186 matches
4 - Bhuvneshwar Kumar: 174 wickets in 167 matches
5 - Amit Mishra: 173 wickets in 161 matches
The Royals inflicted some major blows on MI in the first half of the innings. Trent Boult began the act of destructing the opposition line-up when he removed Rohit Sharma in the first over. Sandeep Sharma then came and got rid of the other opener Ishan Kishan in his first over and then sent back Suryakumar Yadav in his second over. Nabi was promoted to No.4 and he made 23 from 17 balls before Chahal got his milestone scalp.
MI opted to bat first after winning the toss. MI made three changes to their playing XI, while RR made a solitary change. "We are gonna bat first, looks like a good wicket, we didn't see much dew in the last couple of days hence the decision to bat first. It's a very surreal feeling to play my 100th game for the franchise, started my journey with MI, I'm very grateful. We got three changes - Nuwan, Wadhera and Piyush Chawla come in. Shepherd, Madhwal, and Shreyas Gopal go out," Hardik said at the toss.
"We had a slightly different idea about the toss so it’s okay, I'm happy to bowl first. You know the nature of the tournament, it’s a very long tournament, we had a five day break and we discussed about our plans, it’s about focusing about the system and the process. We have played lots of games here, we know how the wicket behaves. MI are known to come back hard in the tournament so we have to play well. We have had Sandeep Sharma back to our side and Kuldeep Sen misses out," Samson said at the toss.
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ishan Kishan(w), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Tim David, Nehal Wadhera, Mohammad Nabi, Gerald Coetzee, Piyush Chawla, Jasprit Bumrah
