Purple Cap IPL 2024: Mohit Sharma dismissed Sikandar Raza on Thursday to climb to pole position in the Purple Cap race with seven wickets in four matches. Despite his performance, the veteran pacer couldn’t prevent a defeat for Gujarat Titans, who lost to Punjab kings by three wickets in their IPL 2024 fixture.
Meanwhile, CSK’s Mustafizur Rahman is second with seven wickets in three matches, followed by LSG’s Mayank Yadav (6) and Yuzvendra Chahal (6) in third and fourth positions respectively. DC’s Khaleel Ahmed is fifth with six dismissals in four games.
Chasing 200, PBKs reached 200/7 in 19.5 overs, winning by three wickets. Shashank Singh top-scored for Punjab with an unbeaten knock of 61 runs off 29 deliveries. For GT’s bowling department, Noor Ahmed shone with two wickets. Initially, GT posted 199/4 in 20 overs, courtesy of Shubman Gill’s unbeaten 48-ball 89*. Meanwhile, Kagiso Rabada took two wickets for PBKS.
Speaking after the match, PBKS star Shashank said, “Still trying to sink in, I vision these things but turning it into reality feels great. I play cricketing shots, I bat at No. 7 but today I batted at No. 5. The bounce was very good, 200 scored by both teams so the wicket was fantastic. They are the legends of cricket, I don’t see the names, I react to the ball and play my shots accordingly. Couldn’t get much matches before, last to last year for SRH but the management, the coaching staff here has really backed me and I was very confident.”
Purple Cap history
The inaugural season’s Purple Cap was claimed by Pakistan’s Sohail Tanvir, who took 22 wickets. Meanwhile, India’s RP Singh was the first Purple Cap winner, clinching i in 2009 with 23 wickets. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the only player to win the award back-to-back. Also, Harshal Patel and Dwayne Bravo share the record for most wickets in a single season. Harshal achieved it in 21 and Bravo did it in 2013. Pragyan was the second Indian to win the Purple Cap, winning it in 2010 with 21 wickets.
