Kerala born pacer Basil Thampi who plays for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL) achieved a unique feat, but one that he would not be too proud of. On Thursday, he broke the record for the worst bowling figures in the history of IPL, after he conceded a whopping 70 runs in his four-over spell against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
This unwanted record was previously held by another Sunrisers Hyderabad pacer Ishant Sharma, who allowed 66 runs from his 4 overs against the Chennai Super Kings, five seasons ago in 2013.
Thampi, who came into the side replacing the in-form Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the playing XI, had a forgettable bowling spell at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium and never seemed in control.
He has been a bowler who is known to be capable of hitting the blockhole on a consistent basis but failed to find his length which resulted in numerous full-tosses and half-volleys. This, coupled with the slowness of the pitch, gave the batsmen ample time to despatch him to every corner of the ground.
Eighty per cent of the runs scored off his bowling came in just 11 balls as Thampi conceded 5 boundaries and 6 maximums which led to 56 runs being scored in just that period.
Englishman Moeen Ali along with South African superstar AB De Villiers were the ones who inflicted the majority of the damage on Thampi’s bowling.
The starting signs were ominous for Thampi as Moeen welcomed him into the attack with a six over long-off from his first delivery and then followed it up with a huge hit over deep mid-wicket to make it twelve from his first two deliveries. His first over resulted in him conceding 19 runs.
AB de Villiers joined the party the next over as he hit Thampi out of the park off the 4th ball and ended the over having taken 18 runs from it. His third and fourth overs combined went for 33 runs, with 19 of them coming from his final over.
RCB ended their innings with a mammoth 218 for 6 from their 20 overs. Thampi’s spell accounted for almost one-third (32.1%) of those runs.
This spell proved to be the difference as Sunrisers Hyderabad fell short of the target, resulting in a 14-run win for RCB.