Saturday, April 6, 2019

Alzarri Joseph creates history in his Indian Premier League debut



West Indian fast bowler Alzarri Joseph enjoyed a dream Indian Premier League debut for Mumbai Indians on Sunday (AEST) after returning best ever figures of 6/12 in the T20 tournament.

The 22-year-old, who joined the Mumbai squad in place of the injured Adam Milne of New Zealand, bowled a stunning 3.4-over spell to help his team thrash hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad by 40 runs.

Joseph went past the previous best bowling effort of Pakistan’s Sohail Tanvir for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL’s inaugural edition in 2008, when the left-arm quick took 6/14.

Joseph, a lanky paceman who made his Test debut in 2016 and took 10 wickets in the West Indies’ recent home 2-1 series triumph against England, was named man of the match.

Joseph got the in-form David Warner out for 15 with his very first ball when the Aussie opener dragged a full delivery back onto his stumps. Warner’s opening partner Jonny Bairstow also had an ordinary day with the bat, scoring 16 before falling to leg-spinner Rahul Chahar, who took two wickets.

Vijay Shankar was Joseph’s second victim when he top edged him to point before the speedster took two wickets in two balls in the 16th over. Deepak Hooda suffered a similar fate to Warner, inside edging a full, straight ball onto his pegs and Joseph sent Rashid Khan packing next delivery when he top edged an attempted pull shot, presenting a simple caught-and-bowled chance.

“It’s a dream start, can’t get better than this. I just wanted to bowl to the plans. When they said I was playing, I decided to keep it simple and back myself,” Joseph said.

The cricket world was in awe of Joseph’s sparkling debut as legends like Sachin Tendulkar and Michael Vaughan offered up plenty of praise.

Earlier, Joseph’s fellow West Indian Kieron Pollard smashed an unbeaten 46 off 26 deliveries to give three-time champions Mumbai a fighting 7/136 after the franchise was reeling at 7/97.

The burly Pollard hit two fours and four sixes, smashing the ball to all parts of the ground as Mumbai thumped 39 runs off the last two overs.

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