Remember the covid-enforced lockdown? While it brings back traumatic memories, there were many who made the most of the forced 'opportunity' to improve their skills. One among them was Mohammed Siraj.
Thursday saw Siraj, who is currently the leading wicket-taker for India in ODIs with 19 scalps from eight matches, become the leading wicket-taker in IPL 2023.
The Challengers headed into Thursday's day game on the back of a loss at home. RCB, still looking for their elusive maiden IPL title, was led by former skipper Virat Kohli who marshalled his troops to an eventually comfortable 24 run win.
Invited to bat first, Kohli and Faf du Plessis put up a century stand, but the Challengers innings didn't pan out exactly to plan. After Virat and Faf handed them a flying start, the RCB innings fizzled out as the Punjab bowlers fought back.
Though Punjab are missing regular skipper Shikhar Dhawan due to injury, the 175 run chase shouldn't have been difficult. Furthermore, the hosts were boosted by the addition of Liam Livingstone playing his first IPL game of the season.
Siraj's sizzling display took the game away from the hosts. He turned in a fiery spell of 4/21 as the Challengers bowled out Punjab for 150.
Punjab's chase got off to a shaky start as Siraj removed Atharva Taide (4) and the hard-hitting Livingstone (2) with the new ball.
Both were originally given 'not out' and after discussions, Kohli successfully appealed for DRS, with the decision being overturned twice.
Kohli brought Siraj back in the death overs as Jitesh Sharma was threatening to take the match away from RCB.
And Siraj delivered once again as he picked up Harpreet Brar and Nathan Ellis to put Challengers on the brink of a comfortable win.
Following his match-winning spell, Siraj revealed, 'The lockdown was very important for me. I was quite down before that because I used to be expensive earlier. I focused on my gym training, on my bowling.'
'Even in ODIs, my rhythm was good, my confidence was high and I have brought that into this season of the IPL.'
