Jofra Archer struck on the first ball of the second innings to equal the record held by Mohammed Shami during Rajasthan Royals’ IPL 2026 match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens on Sunday.Opening the bowling for Rajasthan Royals, Archer bowled KKR opener Tim Seifert for a golden duck with the first delivery of KKR’s innings. With this, Archer now has five wickets on the first ball of an IPL innings, equaling Shami’s record.He also took wickets in the opening ball of RR’s previous two matches – against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on April 10 and Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 13 – dismissing Phil Salt and Abhishek Sharma.Wickets from the first ball of an IPL innings (most):
- 5 – Mohammed Shami
- 5 – Jofra Archer
Earlier, after winning the toss, Rajasthan Royals opted to bat. Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine took five wickets together to restrict RR to 155 for nine.
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RCB admit batting failure after narrow defeat | IPL 2026 It could have been worse for RR had KKR not gained ground in the power play.Rajasthan got off to a good start and reached 63 for no loss as Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi scored over 10 runs apiece against a fast attack.The match changed after the introduction of rotation. Sooryavanshi hit Narine for a six off his second ball, but Narine followed it up with a five-pointer. Chakravarthy then dismissed Sooryavanshi with his fourth ball to complete his 200th T20 wicket. The batter was caught by Ramandeep Singh at deep mid-wicket.Rajasthan Royals slumped from a strong position to 118 for four in 15 overs, with the run rate dipping below eight.
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