Mumbai Indians Skipper Hardik Pandya achieved some remarkable individual feats on Friday, April 5, 2025, although his team suffered a heartbreaking loss against the Lucknow Super Giants.
Hardik, who came up with a superlative bowling performance, created history by becoming the first captain in IPL history to pick five wickets in a match.
Opting to bowl first, he picked 5 for 36 in his 4-over spell, his best figures in T20 cricket, bettering the 4/16 registered against New Zealand in Ahmedabad.
He read the conditions well and used his slower deliveries to good use to contain the LSG batters. He bowled as many as 6 off cutters and 15 short balls.
In the process, he also broke the 16-year-old record held by the legendary Anil Kumble and registered the best bowling figures by a captain in IPL history.
Coming into bowl in the 9th over of the LSG innings, Hardik struck straightaway, sending back the prolific Nicholas Pooran with a slower ball.
He then accounted for his counterpart Rishabh Pant, who continued his torrid run with the bat, scoring a total of 19 runs in the first four matches of the season.
Pandya sent in another slower ball and Pant, trying to tuck it, got a leading edge, offering a catch to the man at mid off.
He returned to bowl the 18th over and removed Aiden Markram with another slower ball.
Across 13 innings in the IPL, Hardik has dismissed the South African six times, giving away only 56 runs.
In the final over the LSG innings, he nabbed two more to complete the five-wicket haul, both with off-pace deliveries. First, he bamboozled David Miller, luring him to play uppishly to deep mid wicket, before getting rid of Akash Deep.
Currently, he is second on the list of IPL captains with most wickets with 30 scalps, only behind Shane Warne who has accumulated 57 wickets. Anil Kumble (30) Ravichandran Ashwin (25), and Pat Cummins (21) make up the top five.
Hardik has three 3-plus wicket hauls in the IPL, behind Shane Warne who picked three or more wickets five times during his IPL career. Anil Kumble and Yuvraj Singh also have three 3-plus wicket hauls.
Then Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Kumble's record feat (4-0-16-4), which Hardik broke on Friday, came against Deccan Chargers way back in May 2009 at the Wanderers stadium in Johannesburg.
Photographs: BCCI
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