IPL 2022 | Bhuvneshwar snaps major milestone, becomes highest wicket-taker in powerplay in IPL history

After facing two back to back embarrassing losses in the tournament, Kane Williamson’s Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) registered its fourth straight win beating a Mayank Agarwal-less Punjab Kings. During the seven-wicket win, Bhuvneshwar Kumar played a considerable role, and he surpassed a massive milestone. 

The star swing bowler created a new record to become the highest wicket-taker in Powerplay overs in the Indian Premier League. He picked a total of three wickets in the game and scalped the stand-in skipper Shikhar Dhawan to surpass Sandeep Sharma - who has 53 wickets in the particular phase of the game.

Kumar, who SRH bought for INR 4.4 crores, has now bagged 54 wickets in the Powerplay (in IPL). He also became the first-ever Indian pacer to collect 150 wickets in the IPL and is only the third pacer ever to do so, following Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga and West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo.

Following the match, the record-maker bowler said, “There was swing early on, and luckily I got a wicket in the first over, and that was good for us. I knew he was going to step out and hit, I just wanted to hit hard lengths, but generally, that’s how I planned with the fielders as well.

Kumar further explained, “I always try to exploit the batter’s weakness or my strengths and depending on the wicket, I look up to which lengths I want to bowl.”

The 32-year old pacer has become the seventh bowler to bag 150 (or more) IPL wickets. Chennai’s Bravo leads the chart with 174 wickets, followed by the legendary Malinga with 170 wickets, Amit Mishra (166), Piyush Chawla (157), Yuzvendra Chahal (151) and Harbhajan Singh (150).