Kolkata, April 19: In the 28th match of IPL 2026, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) faced off against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Sunday. A significant achievement was recorded by Jofra Archer, who equaled a major record held by Mohammad Shami.
Archer struck early, bowling out Tim Seifert on the very first ball of KKR’s innings. This marks the fifth occasion Archer has taken a wicket with the first ball of an innings in the IPL. He now shares the record for the most first-ball wickets in the league with Mohammad Shami.
This is the third time in IPL 2026 that Archer has dismissed a batsman on the first ball of an innings. Previously, he had achieved this feat against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by getting Phil Salt out on the first delivery, and against Sunrisers Hyderabad, where he bowled out Abhishek Sharma.
Alongside Tim Seifert, KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane also returned to the pavilion without scoring. Rahane was dismissed for a duck by Nandre Burger. This is only the second instance in IPL history where both opening batsmen for KKR were out without scoring. The first occurrence was in 2014 when Gautam Gambhir and Jacques Kallis were dismissed for zero.
Batting first, Rajasthan Royals scored 155 runs, losing 9 wickets in their 20 overs. The opening partnership of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Surya helped RR get off to a strong start, adding 81 runs in just 8.4 overs. Vaibhav scored a quick 46 runs off 28 balls, while Yashasvi contributed 39 runs from 29 balls. However, after their dismissals, RR’s innings faltered as they lost wickets at regular intervals. Dhruv Jurel (5 runs), Riyan Parag (12 runs), and Shimron Hetmyer (15 runs) failed to make a significant impact. For KKR, Kartik Tyagi and Varun Chakravarthy each took 3 wickets.
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Arpit Soni has had a passion for journalism since the beginning. Now he has turned this hobby into his profession. Arpit, who is a resident of Udaipur, enjoys editing and writing news related to journalism. He has worked as a Senior Content Producer in several important roles at Bhaskar, Patrika, Pratahkal, Punjab Kesari, and Times. Arpit completed his schooling in Udaipur and Jaipur. He has been working in the media industry for more than 10 years, and his journey is still continuing. ✍️📚
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