After his incredible performance against the Lucknow Super Giants in the current Indian Premier League (IPL), Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya tied the record held by great spinner Anil Kumble for the most wickets taken as a leader in the league.

Pandya took the initiative to lead his team from the front when Mumbai was searching for breakthroughs and someone to grab the mantle and shake Lucknow. By varying his lengths and tempo to keep the batters guessing, Pandya cracked the secret of success in Lucknow.

He achieved his greatest performance in the T20 format by perfectly carrying out his strategy. After delivering all four of his overs, he returned with thunderous figures of 5/36, securing his first-ever five-wicket haul in T20 cricket.

After his brilliant performance with the ball, Pandya tied Kumble for the second-highest number of wickets taken as a skipper in the lucrative league. With an incredible 57 wickets under his belt as an IPL captain, legendary spinner Shane Warne is ranked first. Kumble and Pandya are tied for second place with 30 scalps each.

With 25 wickets, former India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin comes second, followed by Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins, who holds the record with 21 wickets.

The whole Lucknow stadium echoed with Pandya’s record-breaking stint with the ball. He became the first skipper to get a five-for in the IPL and took his first five wickets in T20 cricket.

Priceless scalps of Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant, and David Miller were among the victims of his game-changing spell. In the last over, Pandya returned to the action and ended his session by dismissing tail-ender Akash Deep.

Given his poor performance with the bat, Hardik found it impossible to pull off a rescue act twice, even after his scorching spell. The equation shrank to 29 required in 12 deliveries as MI chased a formidable 204-run total.

The equation was 22 in the last over as MI was only able to claw out seven from the previous over. To give his team a chance, Pandya struck the ball across the boundary rope with his iron wrists as Avesh Khan charged from the bowling end.

Nevertheless, MI lost by 12 runs, and it was the only pyrotechnics the spectators saw from his bat.