Rajasthan Royals (RR) batter Yashasvi Jaiswal made history on Friday by becoming an uncapped player with the most runs in a single season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) history. The 21-year-old reached this milestone during his side's IPL 2023 match against Punjab Kings at Dharamshala.
In the match, Jaiswal continued his red-hot form with a knock of 50 runs in just 36 balls, consisting of eight boundaries. His runs came at a strike rate of 138.69. With this, Jaiswal has scored a total of 625 runs in 14 matches at an average of 48.07. He has scored one century and five half-centuries this season, with the best score of 124. His runs have come at a strike rate of 163.61.
The young batter has broken a 15-year-old record of most runs by an uncapped player in IPL history, which was earlier held by Australian batter Shaun Marsh. In the IPL 2008, when Marsh was uncapped and yet to represent Australia, he had scored 616 runs in 11 matches at an average of 68.44, with one century and five fifties.
Indian batter Ishan Kishan is the third player to lead the list of smashing the most runs, 516 runs with an average of 57.3 in the 2020 season. He had four fifties being an uncapped player and scored best innings of 99. Star MI batter Suryakumar Yadav is placed in the fourth position with 512 runs in the 2018 season. He had an average of 36.57 and a strike rate of 133.3. he clinched four half-centuries playing for Mumbai Indians. His best innings was 72. Devdutt Padikkal has also made it to the list with 473 runs in a single season of IPL back in 2020. Playing for RCB, he had an average of 31.5 with a strike rate of 124.8, with five half-centuries.
After being put to bat first by RR, PBKS scored 187/5 in their 20 overs. They struggled against RR bowlers initially, losing their four wickets for just 50 runs in 6.3 overs. Then Jitesh Sharma (44 in 28 balls, with three fours and three sixes) and Sam Curran stitched a 64-run stand for the fifth wicket to bring PBKS back into the game. Then in death overs, Curran (49* in 31 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes) and Shahrukh Khan (41* in 23 balls, four boundaries and two sixes) joined forces to up the run rate, taking PBKS to a competitive total. They scored 46 runs in the final two overs. Navdeep Saini (3/40) was the pick of the bowlers for RR. Trent Boult and Adam Zampa took a wicket each.
In the chase of 188, RR lost Jos Buttler early for a duck, his fifth this season. Then Yashasvi Jaiswal (50 in 36 balls, with eight fours) and Devdutt Padikkal (51 in 30 balls, with four boundaries and three sixes) stitched a 73-run stand for the second wicket, helping RR fight back. Later on, cameos from Shimron Hetmyer (46 in 28 balls, four boundaries and three sixes), Riyan Parag (20 in 12 balls, with one four and two sixes) and Dhruv Jurel (10* in four balls) helped RR clinch a last-over thriller win by four wickets.
Kagiso Rabada (2/40) was the pick of the bowlers for PBKS. Sam Curran, Nathan Ellis, Deepak Chahar and Arshdeep Singh took a wicket each. Padikkal got the 'Player of the Match' award for his fifty. With this, RR is in the fifth spot in the points table with seven wins and seven losses. They have a total of 14 points. They can still climb up to the top four spots if Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) lose their last match against Gujarat Titans by a huge margin and Mumbai Indians lose their last match against Sunrisers Hyderabad too. PBKS's IPL 2023 campaign is over. They end in the eighth position with six wins and eight losses. They have a total of 12 points.
