It wasn’t an ideal outing for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 leaders Gujarat Titans on Wednesday as they slumped to an eight-wicket loss to Punjab Kings, only their second defeat of what has been a remarkable debut season so far.
And among the notable moments from the 48th game of the season was South African quick Kagiso Rabada removing Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan off successive balls in the 17th over of the innings, making a fine comeback after going for plenty of runs in the powerplay.
Both Tewatia and Khan were responsible for guiding GT to a thrilling last-ball five-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad last week, but were dismissed cheaply this time around.
Gujarat Titans’ Rashid Khan walks back after getting dismissed first ball off Kagiso Rabada’s bowling. Sportzpics
Khan, a firm hitter of the ball with a T20 strike rate touching the 150-mark (146.80), thus got dismissed for a duck for the 12th time in his IPL career, drawing level with Glenn Maxwell for the overseas batter with most ducks in the league.
Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma leads the overall list for most ducks in the IPL, having been dismissed for a nought 14 times in 217 innings. As many as seven players are tied second with 13 ducks to their name — Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Mandeep Singh, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik.
The Afghan leg-spinner also became the first cricketer in the history of the cash-rich league to get dismissed for 10 golden ducks, with former Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings off-spinner Harbhajan (7) the closest to Rashid in this list.
Rabada would finish with figures of 4/33, for which he would be adjudged the Player of the Match, as Punjab romped to an eight-wicket with with four overs to spare to give their Net Run Rate a massive boost and keep their playoff hopes alive.
Punjab currently are fifth on the points table with 10 points against their name. GT, though, remain on top despite the ‘L’ as they’re the only side with eight wins against their name so far in the tournament.