Rajasthan Royals' Devdutt Padikkal entered his name in the record books yesterday as he became the joint third-fastest Indian batter to reach the 1000-run mark in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Padikkal needed two runs to join the illustrious club yesterday and flicked the KKR bowler Shivam Mavi for a boundary to bring up the major milestone.
With this, the Royals opener surpassed the likes of Gautam Gambhir (36 innings), MS Dhoni (37 innings) and Rohit Sharma (37 innings) to become the joint third-fastest to touch the four-digit number in 35 innings along with Rishabh Pant.
The names above Padikkal in the list include Sachin Tendulkar (31 innings) and Suresh Raina (34 innings). The legendary batters gave a great start to their IPL careers and are a vital part of their respective franchises' legacy.
Although Padikkal achieved the glorious feat, his poor run in the pink jersey continued as Sunil Narine outsmarted him at the score of 24. The Karnataka-born has accumulated just 138 runs at an underwhelming average and strike rate of 23 and 122.12 in the six matches of IPL 2022.
While the 21-year-old struggled to get going against the Knight Riders, Jos Buttler, who is in a rich vein of form, brought his prowess to the fore and smashed his second century of the season. The Englishman's heroics helped RR in giving KKR a target of 218 runs.
Despite skipper Shreyas Iyer's valiant knock, KKR were found wanting, courtesy of Yuzvendra Chahal. The leg-spinner claimed a hat-trick and won the game for RR, ending the game with the figures of 40/5.