Move over, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Anshul Kamboj, Kagiso Rabada is here, and right on top of the wicket-takers’ table after picking up two wickets. He is on 18 strikes now, moving up steadily and looking more and more threatening with each passing game.
Familiar territory for Rabada, who won the Purple Cap in 2020, when playing for Delhi Capitals (DC). Then, he got 30 wickets, one of only three times a bowler has picked up 30 or more wickets in an IPL season.
RR’s Jofra Archer, who had a shot at moving up the table, too, had a wicketless night, and that means it’s Rabada at No. 1, followed by Bhuvneshwar and Kamboj, of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), respectively, at 17 wickets apiece, then Prince Yadav of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Eshan Malinga of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at 16 each, and a brand-new name near the top, Rashid Khan, at No. 6, after the GT legspinner’s four-wicket haul against RR lifted him to 15 wickets for the season, the same as Archer, but at a better economy rate: 8.26 to 9.12.
But it’s double-header Sunday, with CSK vs LSG and RCB vs Mumbai Indians (MI), so a lot could change within 24 hours.
GT captain Shubman Gill hit 84 in 44 balls and his opening partner B Sai Sudharsan scored 55 in 36 balls in their 229 for 4, which was 77 runs too many for RR. Gill, as a result, moved up to No. 4 with 462 runs – Klaasen (494), Abhishek (475) and Rahul (468) are ahead of him, but not by much – while Sai Sudharsan got to No. 6 with 440 runs.
Between Gill and Sai Sudharsan is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who scored 36 in 16 balls to give RR hope in their chase, and took his tally for the season up to 440 runs, identical to Sai Sudharsan but ahead on strike rate: Sooryavanshi has scored his runs at 236.55, while Sai Sudharsan has gone at 157.70.
