“Take a bow”: Aakash Chopra admires Harshal Patel’s maiden IPL five-wicket haul vs Mumbai Indians in IPL 2021

Harshal Patel’s maiden IPL five-wicket haul: The pacer from Royal Challengers Bangalore marked his comeback with a career-best performance.

During the first match of the ongoing 14th season of the Indian Premier League between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai, Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer Harshal Patel registered a maiden T20 five-wicket haul to restrict Mumbai Indians to 159/9 in 20 overs.

Introduced into the attack by captain Virat Kohli in the eighth over, Patel bowled a no-ball to begin his second stint at RCB. Having conceded 15 runs in his first over, Patel staged an exceptional comeback to register career-best bowling figures of 4-0-27-5.

Given the responsibility of bowling in the death overs, Patel aced the challenge as three overs in the business end of the innings saw him picking bowling figures 3-0-12-5 including giving a solitary runs in the last over of the innings.

Patel, who deceived Indians all-rounder Hardik Pandya (13) with a slower delivery in his second over, then dismissed wicket-keeper batsman Ishan Kishan (28) in his third over as the defending champions continued to lose wickets at regular intervals.

Bowling against the likes of tried and tested all-rounders in Krunal Pandya (7) and Kieron Pollard (7), Patel reaped fruits by keeping things simple at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

Other than Patel, Royal Challengers all-rounders in Washington Sundar and Kyle Jamieson picked a wicket apiece to justify Kohli’s decision of winning the toss and electing to field. For Mumbai, debutant opener Chris Lynn top-scored with his 49 (35) comprising of four fours and three sixes.

Twitter reactions on Harshal Patel’s maiden IPL five-wicket haul

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