IPL 2019 | Could not have asked for better start, says Alzarri Joseph

The MI bowlers had their task cut out, trying to defend such a low total starting against the in-form opening pair of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner, who had three century partnerships in four matches until then and had lasted at least till the powerplay overs until Saturday’s match.

But the Sunrisers had a storm in the form of young Windies pacer Alzarri Joseph waiting for them. He scalped six wickets giving away 12 runs in his 3.3 overs, bettering Sohail Tanvir’s 14 for six, a 12-year-old Indian Premier League record for best bowling figures, that too, in his debut match. Joseph rightly went on to term it as a dream debut.

The MI skipper Rohit Sharma started the bowling with Jasprit Bumrah and Jason Behrendorff, hoping to get the Orange Army’s dangerous opening duo, but the story seemed no different than the previous matches as the duo had stuck 27 runs in three overs. The skipper then handed the ball to Rahul Chahar in the fourth over and he broke the dreaded partnership by dismissing Bairstow for 16. Next came in the latest recruit, Joseph, who dismissed Warner for 15 in his very first delivery, triggering a flurry of wickets, which ended with the final wicket of Siddharth Kaul. The MI bowlers wrapped the Sunrisers for 96 in less than 18 overs with the chief architect being the young Antiguan pacer with six wickets.