Nerves seemed to get the better of Caribbean pacer Shamar Joseph as he could not match his speed with accuracy in his debut over in the Indian Premier League in the Lucknow Super Giants' (LSG) loss to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday at the Eden gardens in Kolkata. (As It Happened | Full Coverage)
Joseph had to bowl 10 balls to complete his debut IPL over and ultimately conceded 22 runs at the end of it.
With LSG defending just 161, captain KL Rahul entrusted debutant Shamar Joseph with the opening over of the second innings. The 24-year-old pacer who had shot to limelight after a stunning seven-fer against Australia earlier this year, bowled a good outswinger to begin his IPL career.
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After 5 good balls in which he conceded just 8 runs, with two of them coming through byes and leg byes, it was the last ball of the over that ruined his figures and stretched the over to 10 balls.
The Caribbean bowled a 150.7 kmph thunderbolt to Phil Salt but it was dropped at Fine Leg by Yash Thakur. Soon it was revealed that Joseph had overstepped.
The next ball, a free hit, was a wide. The ball after that was another leg-side wide but it went worse this time as it raced past the keeper for a boundary.
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Determined to finish over on a high, Joseph came charging again only to bowl another no-ball and then get hit straight down the ground for a six by Phil Salt on the last ball of the over.
Just like Joseph, LSG had a bad day on the field with none of the bowlers looking like taking wickets except Mohsin Khan who picked two. Joseph who bowled with a lot of pace conceded 47 in his four-over spell and went wicketless.
A rampaging Salt scored a 47-ball 89 not out with 14 fours and three sixes to give KKR a comfortable home victory by 8 wickets and 26 balls in hand. LSG, batting first, could only master 161/8 that too after a 32-ball 45 from Nicholas Pooran. The total seemed too small for KKR as Salt and Iyer put up a 120 run unbeaten stand for the third wicket to take KKR home.
