Siraj produced an inspired spell of swing bowling, finishing with 3-8 from four overs, and recorded two maidens, which was an IPL first. There was a total of four maidens in the match, which also made competition history.
However, Kolkata Knight Riders grabbed their own unwanted history, recording the lowest score in IPL history without being bowled out, finishing 8-84 from their 20 overs after captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and elected to bat.
Siraj took the top-order wickets of Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana and Tom Banton to decimate KKR, who never recovered, with Morgan top scoring with 30 from 34 balls. Only two KKR batsmen managed a strike rate of above 100.
In reply, Royal Challengers Bangalore made light work of the small target, chasing it down inside 14 overs, with eight wickets to spare, led by Devdutt Padikkal (25 from 17) and captain Virat Kohli (18no from 17).
“Last year Siraj had a tough year and a lot of people went hard at him,” Kohli said.
“This year he has worked hard and was bowling well in the nets. He has seen the results now but we want him to keep following the process.”
Siraj was playing only his fourth match of the 2020 IPL season, but was delighted to get the chance to open the bowling and do some damage.
“Thanks to Virat for giving me the new ball,” Siraj said. “I have been practicing a lot with the new ball.
“We hadn’t planned that I will open but when we went out, Virat said sir get ready. The ball to Rana was very good, executed exactly what I had planned.”
While Kohli said it was a good toss to lose, Morgan admitted he should have bowled first. He added that the batting totally let them down.
“I think it started with batting. Being four or five down as early as we were is disappointing,” he said.
“RCB bowled well, but we should have countered that better and with that dew, we probably should have bowled first.”