Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
Royal Challengers Bangalore pace bowler Harshal Patel managed to equal Dwayne Bravo's record for the most wickets in an IPL season. While Bravo had taken 32 wickets in 18 matches in the 2013 season, Patel scalped the same number of wickets in 15 games.
Even though his team was eliminated from the IPL 2021 after losing to Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday, Patel is currently leading the Purple Cap race with Avesh Khan in second place. Patel was transferred to the Bangalore side from the Delhi Capitals and had a phenomenal season, also returning with impressive figures of 2/19 in the eliminator.
Harshal picked the wickets of both the Kolkata openers Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer to level the record. He even had an opportunity to go past Bravo on the first ball of the last over of his spell but Devdutt Padikkal dropped a catch off his bowling which prevented him from being the sole record holder.
You definitely deserve to go on top: Bravo to Patel
After the match though, Bravo took to Instagram to share a congratulatory message for Patel. "Congratulations @harshalvp 23. You definitely deserve to go on top!! Great to watch!”, Bravo wrote. However, while Patel's season with the Royal Challengers Bangalore came to an end with their four-wicket defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders, Bravo's Chennai Super Kings have already sealed a berth for themselves in the final.
Check out screenshot of Bravo's story:
While Patel eventually failed to go past Bravo in the context of that record, he did break the record for picking most wickets in a single season by an Indian bowler. While Jasprit Bumrah had taken 27 wickets in the 2020 season, Harshal ended with 32. Moreover, his 30 wickets in the league stage is also the record for the most number of wickets in the round-robin phase of a single IPL season.
A win for Bangalore against Kolkata would not only have kept alive their dream of a maiden title in the season alive but also would have given the 30-year-old at least one more match to break Bravo's record.
While Chennai Super Kings have already reached the finals, the winner of the match between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders will meet the Men in Yellow on Friday.