Rajasthan Royals' (RR) star opener Yashasvi Jaiswal scripted history as he whacked the the fastest half century in the history of Indian Premier League (IPL) against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens stadium on Thursday (May 11).
Jaiswal took just 13 balls to bring his half century as he shattered KL Rahul and Pat Cummins' previous record of 14-ball fifty.
Jaiswal smacked 26 runs in the first over off KKR skipper Nitish Rana to kickstart a 150-run chase. Jaiswal has now amassed 531 runs this season overtaking Ishan Kishan’s (516) record of most runs in an IPL season by an uncapped Indian player.
Fastest fifties in IPL
Yashasvi Jaiswal: 13 balls
KL Rahul: 14 balls
Pat Cummins: 14 balls
Yusuf Pathan: 15 balls
Sunil Narine: 15 balls
Follow the KKR vs RR's live scores here
While chasing a KKR's modest total of 149/8, RR got off to a lightning start as Jaiswal belted 26 runs off Nitish Rana first over. Jaiswal welcomed Rana with a first-ball six which sailed over long-on. Jaiswal followed it up with yet another big one over backward square leg. The following two balls of the over resulted in two consecutive boundaries, before Jaiswal took a double on the fifth delivery. Jaiswal clobbered another boundary to finish the first over in style which gifted RR 26 runs. Jaiswal's stunning form continued as he went on to score an additional 24 runs in the next seven balls, reaching a historic milestone. His knock included seven fours and three sixes, leaving the crowd in awe of his talent and skill.
RR rode on Yashasvi Jaiswal's record-breaking fifty to chase down the modest target with 41 balls to spare. Jaiswal smashed the fastest fifty in the IPL history as he took just 13 balls to reach to the massive milestone. Jaiswal went on to score 98 off 47 which was decorated with 12 fours and five sixes. RR skipper too chipped in with a blistering 29-ball 48 to help RR win by nine wickets.
Earlier, RR captain Samson won the toss and elected to bowl first against KKR. The decision to bowl first worked for the Men in Pink as they restricted KKR for a modest 149, thanks to Yuzvendra Chahal's brilliant four-fer, who broke Dwayne Bravo's record to become the leading wicket taker in the history of IPL with 184 scalps.
“We will bowl here first. Long tournament, need to change according to the strength and weaknesses. Couple of changes for us - Boult replaces Kuldeip Yadav, KM Asif replaced Murugan Ashwin. Root will bat at 4. It's a long tournament, we have had some tough games for the bowlers, the morale of the team is high, not easy to forget close losses, but we need to move on,” Samson said after winning the toss.
“I think we're getting the type of pitches we want. We will have to play good cricket, take one game at a time and earn 2 points. One change for us - Anukul Roy replaces Vaibhav Arora. Looks like the pitch is dry, they haven't watered a lot, so we are playing that extra spinner and add some depth to the batting,” KKR captain Nitish Rana said after the toss.
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Joe Root, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, KM Asif, Yuzvendra Chahal.
RR impact subs: Donavon Ferreira, Devdutt Padikkal, Riyan Parag, Murugan Ashwin, Navdeep Saini
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy.
KKR impact subs: Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora, N Jagadeesan, Umesh Yadav, Lockie Ferguson.
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