IPL 2021: 3 best bowling performances from Week 2
The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is now in full swing, with a few teams having shifted base to new venues.
Chennai and Mumbai have hosted all the matches so far, and the wickets at both grounds have been a touch inconsistent. While bowlers have frequently found assistance either in the powerplay or in the middle overs, batsmen have been able to get stuck in and help their team post big totals.
Here, we rank the 3 best bowling performances from Week 2 of IPL 2021. Note: Matches from MI vs SRH (Match 9) to RR vs RCB (Match 16) have been considered for the purposes of this article.
#3 Moeen Ali (3/7 in 3 overs, IPL 2021 Match 12 - CSK vs RR)
Match 12 of IPL 2021 saw CSK and RR face off at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
After the Men in Yellow put on 188/9 after being put in to bat by RR captain Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler and Manan Vohra got their team off to a decent start in the powerplay. But Ravindra Jadeja castled Buttler in the 12th over with a peach of a delivery, causing a flurry of wickets to fall in the middle overs.
Moeen Ali was introduced into the attack once Buttler was dismissed, and he made an immediate impact. The off-spinner sent back David Miller in the 13th over before scalping the wickets of Chris Morris and Riyan Parag in the succeeding over.
Ali finished with incredible figures of 3/7 in his 3 overs as CSK coasted to a 45-run win.
#2 Deepak Chahar (4/29 in 4 overs, IPL 2021 Match 15 - CSK vs KKR)
Deepak Chahar made an entry in our Week 1 IPL 2021 roundup, and he finds himself on this list as well, for another four-wicket haul.
In the 15th match of IPL 2021 against KKR, Chahar ensured that Eoin Morgan's men were staring down the barrel in their chase of 221. He had Shubman Gill caught at third-man for a first-ball duck, before inducing a top-edge off Nitish Rana's bat in the 3rd over.
Bowling his third of the powerplay, the Rajasthan-born pacer scalped the wicket of captain Morgan and Sunil Narine. He finished with wonderful figures of 4/29 in 4 overs, and although KKR mounted a late resurgence thanks to Andre Russell, Pat Cummins and Dinesh Karthik, they fell 18 runs short.
#1 Amit Mishra (4/24 in 4 overs, IPL 2021 Match 13 - MI vs DC)
Veteran leg-spinner Amit Mishra played DC's first game of IPL 2021, but was immediately dropped from the playing XI. He made his way back into the side for Match 13 against MI, and won the Man of the Match award for his troubles.
Mishra dismanted the MI middle order with an excellent display of old-fashioned spin-bowling, defying age and recent form. The veteran bowler got rid of MI captain Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya in the 9th over, before trapping Kieron Pollard in front with a magical googly. Ishan Kishan was the next to join the procession as he was castled by Mishra in rather unfortunate fashion.
MI were restricted to just 137 by Mishra's four-wicket haul, and DC comfortably chased down the total with 5 balls and 6 wickets to spare.