Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 25: Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s pace ace Josh Hazlewood delivered a fiery spell to help secure a thrilling win over Rajasthan Royals and etched his name in the IPL record books by becoming the joint-fastest pacer to reach 50 IPL wickets.
Hazlewood matched former Mumbai Indians bowler Mitchell McClenaghan’s record, reaching the milestone in just 36 IPL matches—making them joint-fourth on the list for fastest pacers to 50 wickets in the league’s history. The top three remain Kagiso Rabada (27 matches), Lasith Malinga (33), and Khaleel Ahmed (35).
The 34-year-old Australian was in lethal form at RCB’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium, scalping four crucial wickets in a high-pressure chase where Rajasthan was pursuing a target of 206. He also crossed the 150-wicket mark in T20 cricket during this outing.
Hazlewood struck first by dismissing Yashasvi Jaiswal at the tail-end of the powerplay. Later, he returned in the death overs to remove the dangerous Shimron Hetmyer and produced a stunning penultimate over, conceding just one run and removing Dhruv Jurel and Jofra Archer off successive deliveries. His performance dismantled Rajasthan’s hopes and secured RCB’s first home win of the season by 11 runs.
Hazlewood was rightly named Player of the Match for his game-changing four-wicket haul.