Rajasthan Royals (RR) spinner Yuzvendra Chahal produced a scintillating effort with a hat-trick to turn the game on it’s head against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Brabourne Stadium. Chasing 218 runs, KKR put on a valiant effort but fell short by seven runs.

After shelling 38 runs in three overs, the 31-year-old stunned everyone with an outstanding final over to change the momentum of the game. Chahal got a brilliant start to the 17th over, giving away only two runs in the first three balls before producing three magical balls to achieve the landmark.

Yuzvendra Chahal trapped Shreyas Iyer LBW, who was threatening to take the game away with an outstanding knock of 85 from just 51 balls. Chahal put a lot of flight on the next ball, inducing Shivam Mavi to go for a big hit. The youngster mistimed it, giving a simple catch to Riyan Parag at the boundary. The India international followed it up with another brilliant delivery to find a faint edge off Pat Cummins to complete his hat-trick.

He eventually finished with figures of 5/40, which is also his first five-wicket haul in the IPL. It was the 21st hat-trick in the IPL and fifth by a Rajasthan Royals bowler. Ajit Chandila, Pravin Tambe, Shane Watson and Shreyas Gopal did it for RR before Yuzvendra Chahal.

Watch the clip here:

RR prevail over Kolkata in a high-scoring thriller

What a way to celebrate IPL’s 15th birthday. Jos Buttler’s century, Yuzvendra Chahal’s hat-trick and a brilliant effort from Shreyas Iyer and Co. the game had everything a fan would want to make their day.

It all started when Jos Buttler smacked a century to propel Rajasthan to 217 runs after being asked to bat first. Sanju Samson (38 off 19) and Shimron Hetmyer (26* off 13) also made significant contribution to put the highest total of IPL 2022.

In reply, despite losing Sunil Narine on the first ball off the innings, Shreyas Iyer and Aaron Finch continued to milk runs to keep KKR in the run chase. They added 107 runs in just 54 deliveries before Finch departed for a well-made 58 off 28 balls.

The dismissal brought helped Rajasthan pull the brakes with a couple of wickets. Yuzvendra Chahal got the better of Nitish Rana before Ravichandran Ashwin knocked off Andre Russell with an absolute jaffa. Umesh Yadav threatned to take the game away with a couple of hits but debutant Obed McCoy held nerves to defend 10 runs off the final over.

---