Harshal is currently in the list of highest wicket-takers in the ongoing tournament. The pacer got 22 scalps in his 13 IPL outings and currently leading the tally. Jasprit Bumrah is second in the list with 20 wickets in 13 matches.

New Delhi: Punjab Kings pacer Harshal Patel picked Jasprit Bumrah as his competitor in the Indian Premier League 2024 during the ongoing clash of Rajasthan Royals vs Punjab Kings match 65. Harshal picked two wickets in his four overs spell by giving 28 runs that helped PBKS to restrict Rajasthan on 144/9 in 20 overs.

Harshal is currently in the list of highest wicket-takers in the ongoing tournament. The pacer got 22 scalps in his 13 IPL outings and currently leading the tally. Jasprit Bumrah is second in the list with 20 wickets in 13 matches.

Has been a see-saw. Keeps going away from me. (On Bumrah) He is someone who I see as a competitor, I aspire to be as good as him. (On his dipping slower delivery) It is a difficult delivery to execute but once you start executing, it gives you a lot of confidence. If the batter doesn’t pick it, then it increases your chance of getting a wicket. I’ve been bowling it for almost five years now. In the last year and a half, I wasn’t able to execute it consistently so I didn’t try it in the first half of the IPL. It gives me so many options at the death, the batters are ready for that slower one and I can sneak in a yorker or a quick length ball. And when you get the batters out, they can’t get that acceleration at the death. They are probably 10-15 below par, I think we bowled really well after the powerplay. Hopefully we can play some sensible cricket and chase this down” said Harshal during mid-innings interation.

Earlier in the match, It was once again the hometown hero, Riyan Parag who continued his impressive form scoring 48 runs off 34 deliveries. He replayed his innings from their previous game against CSK in a similar fashion where he had scored 47 runs off 35 deliveries. Parag’s contribution was the only worthwhile one in the RR batting lineup as the team was restricted to a sub par score.

The Royals for the second game in a row struggled to get off to a good start in the game. Punjab captain Sam Curran who stated before the game that he “certainly does not want to lose tonight’ started the game by backing his statement and bowled out Indian Prodigy, Yashasvi Jaiswal in the very first over.

RR managed to score only 33 runs in the powerplay which was similar to their powerplay score of 42 against CSK in their previous game. This was followed by wickets at regular intervals for PBKS whose bowlers did not give the Rajasthani batters any chance of gathering rhythm.