Afghanistan’s leg spinning wonder, Rashid Khan, on Sunday grabbed the Purple Cap after his splendid spell of 3/19. His spell helped Sunrisers Hyderabad tie Gujarat Lion for just 135/7 in the 6th match of the IPL at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. He currently has five wickets in two matches at an average of 11.
Thanks to his spell against Gujarat, the Lions were never able to get set and score big. His victims included Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina and Aaron Finch.
The trio had a tough time negotiating his mixtures of leg-breaks and googlies. The Afghan bowling superstar’s performances have earned him a completely new fan base in India.
He termed the wicket of McCullum, his first of the day, as his favourite wicket while speaking in the mid-innings interview.
“It is a wonderful moment for me. I would like to keep the good work going till the end. It’s difficult for the batsmen to pick my googlies. It’s a good track and if you bowl wicket-to-wicket here, it will be tough for the batsmen. We have lots of support here and thanks to all the support in Afghanistan. I bowl according to the conditions and Baz’s is my favourite wicket. Hopefully, our batsmen will try and chase this score,” says an elated Rashid Khan, who is now the purple cap holder.
Sunrisers look set to pick yet another win after starting off on a jubilant note against Royal Challengers Bangalore. David Warner won the toss and chose to field first.
The decision proved to be wonderful, as his bowling attack backed up by Rashid Khan put his side right on the top.
The first wicket to fall for Gujarat was Brandon McCullum, who failed to judge a google and was trapped LBW while playing a sweep shot. Bhuvneshwar Kumar followed up Baz’s wicket with Jason Roy dismissal, who was caught by Dhawan in a brilliant fielding effort.
Rashid then snapped two more important wickets of Aaron Finch and Suresh Raina in short successions to land heavy blows to the opposition.
The batting side could not recover from the dent. Dinesh Kartik and Dwayne Smith tried their bit with a 56 runs stand but that could only take the Lions to a functional score.