Jofra Archer breathed fire with his tearaway pace during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 clash between Gujarat Titans (GT) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad on April 9.
RR skipper Sanju Samson won the toss and decided to bowl first. They made just one tweak to their lineup, bringing in Fazalhaq Farooqi to replace Wanindu Hasaranga, who's sitting this one out for personal reasons. Meanwhile, GT decided to stick with the same eleven players.
Jofra Archer steps on the gas with his tearaway pace during GT vs RR clash
Gujarat Titans started their innings with Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill at the crease, and Rajasthan Royals entrusted England's express pacer Jofra Archer with the new ball. The Titans managed to score seven runs in Archer's opening over, and then another seven came off Farooqi's over. Archer was really bringing the heat, hitting a fiery 152.3 kmph in his first over and looking in fantastic rhythm as he came back to bowl his second.
ALSO READ: RCB stalwart Virat Kohli takes big decision amidst IPL 2025 to leave fans surprised
Then, right at the very first ball of the third over, Archer delivered a real peach to GT captain Shubman Gill, clocking in at 147.7 kmph. Gill tried to play a forward push, but he was just a fraction too late on the shot. The ball nipped back in sharply, sneaking past his inside edge and crashing straight into the off-stump. The GT captain was dismissed for just 2 runs off 3 balls, clearly caught off guard by the movement off the pitch.
Notably, the 152.3 kmph delivery from Jofra Archer was the second fastest ball bowled so far in this IPL season. The current record for the quickest delivery belongs to Lockie Ferguson, who hit a blistering 153.2 kmph during the match between Lucknow Super Giants and Punjab Kings.
ALSO READ: Massive blow to Karachi Kings, IPL winning star set to miss first half of PSL 2025
Interestingly, Archer has actually featured twice in the top five fastest deliveries of the tournament. The English speedster also clocked 151.3 kmph in an earlier match between Punjab Kings and his own team, the Rajasthan Royals.
Archer recorded a the bowling figures of 30/1 in his four-over spell. Besides Archer it was Tushar Deshpande (2/53) and Maheesh Theekshana (2/54) chipped in with two wickets each. However, barring Archer, all the other RR bowlers proved costly which saw GT posting a daunting total of 217/6.
Gujarat Titans' playing XI
Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Jos Buttler(w), Sherfane Rutherford, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma
Gujarat Titans Impact Subs: Washington Sundar, Nishant Sindhu, Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror, Arshad Khan
Rajasthan Royals' playing XI
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(w/c), Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Sandeep Sharma, Tushar Deshpande
Rajasthan Royals Impact Subs: Kunal Singh Rathore, Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal