Ankit Rajpoot produced a brilliant spell of fast bowling to pick up his career-best figures of 5/14 against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday. Opening the attack for Kings XI Punjab, Rajpoot produced a tremendous effort where he knocked off SRH’s top three batsman – Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson, and Wriddhiman Saha. Showing impeccable control with the ball Rajpoot proved his worth by consistently hitting the deck hard and troubling the batsman. Towards the end of the innings, he once again returned to show his skills by varying his pace so as to not become predictable. He consistently hit the blockhole at a good pace and scalped the wickets of Mohammad Nabi and the well-settled Manish Pandey. It was his spell which restricted SRH to 132. But sadly, it was not enough as KXIP lost the match by 13 runs. Incidentally, Ankit Rajpoot also became the first bowler from KXIP to take five wickets haul in IPL history.
In the list of best figures by an Indian pacer in IPL, Rajpoot is just behind Ishant Sharma who registered figures of 5/12 Ishant v Kochi Tuskers in 2011.
Among uncapped Indians who have recorded the best figures in IPL, Rajpoot sits on top bettering the previous best of 4/13 Ajit Chandila v Pune Warriors, Jaipur, 2012.
Srinath Aravind (4/14), R Bhatia (4/15) and Pawan Negi (4/18) are the other names on the elusive list.
Reflecting on Rajpoot’s dream spell, fellow pacer, Andrew Tye said, “Ankit has been outstanding, he picked up three very crucial wickets, should have had four. He is willing to learn and always puts in his 100%.”
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