Yuzvendra Chahal stole the show at the Brabourne Stadium on Monday evening as he picked a hat-trick and finished with a five-wicket haul against KKR. It was also his first five-wicket haul in the IPL.
The Royals won by 7 runs and moved to 2nd on the points table.
Yuzvendra Chahal turned the match on its head by claiming the 21st hat-trick of Indian Premier League (IPL) as he dismissed Shreyas Iyer, trapped lbw trying to whip a delivery pitching on the middle.
On the next delivery of the 17th over, Chahal had Shivam Mavi caught by Riyan Parag and completed his hat-trick when Pat Cummins edged back to Sanju Samson -- going off for a lengthy celebration.
Chahal’s is the 21st hat-trick in the IPL. While veteran spinner Amit Mishra has achieved the feat thrice, this was a first for Chahal.
That completed a five-wicket haul for Chahal as he had claimed the wickets of Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer earlier -- the pencil-thin spinner ending with 5/40 off his four overs.
"I had to take wickets in this match to change the result. I worked on my bowling. I spoke to the coaches and the skipper," said Chahal at the post-match ceremony on Monday.
Asked what was going in his mind as he shaped up to bowl the hat-trick delivery, Chahal said he thought of bowling a googly but changed his mind at the last moment.
"I was thinking of a googly but then I didn't want to take a chance. Would have been a happy with a dot ball as well on my hat-trick ball," said Chahal.
In the six matches so far this season, Chahal has bagged 17 wickets and is the Purple Cap holder with T Natarajan on 12 wickets at second.
Chahal finished with the Player of the Match award.
After Pravin Tambe in 2014, This is only the second time that a Rajasthan Royals bowler has bagged 3 wickets off consecutive balls against KKR. And Chahal is the fourth Rajasthan bowler to get a hat-trick in the IPL after Tambe, Shane Watson (2014 vs SRH) and Shreyas Gopal (2019 vs RCB).