Yuzvendra Chahal Aces Kolkata Knight Riders With A Hat-Trick And 5/40

Leg spin is the most difficult art of bowling — being unorthodox in style when juxtaposed with the conventional finger spinner — but they are wicket takers and match winners in the most difficult circumstances. India’s premiere leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal saw lady luck smile on him while plotting Rajasthan Royals’ victory against the Kolkata Knight Riders much against the run of play. He became the fifth leg spinner in the Twenty20 league after Amit Mishra (a phenomenal three times; for Hyderabad v Pune, DD v Deccan Chargers and for Deccan Chargers v Mohali), Shreyas Gopal (for RR v RCB), Samuel Badree (for RCB v MI) and Pravin Tambe (for RR v KKR) to perform the magic feat. Chahal got rid of Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Mavi and Pat Cummins to provide the 21st instance of a hat trick in the TATA IPL-15. This feat had eluded him at the start of the tournament when he flummoxed Mumbai Indian’s Tim David and Daniel Sams after which substitute Karun Nair dropped Murugan Ashwin at slip. With his first 5 wicket haul against KKR, he is all set to go past the fourth placed Piyush Chawla’s 157 victims in the competition. The leg spinner did the trick for Chahal not the googly!  ‘I had to take wickets”, the RR hero said of his 17th over tour de force!