NEW DELHI: West Indies fast bowler Alzarri Joseph enjoyed a dream Indian Premier League debut for Mumbai Indians on Saturday after returning best ever figures of 6-12 in the Twenty20 tournament.
The 22-yer-old, who joined the Mumbai squad in place of the injured Adam Milne of New Zealand, bowled a maiden in 3.4 overs to help his team thrash hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad by 40 runs.
Joseph went past the previous best bowling effort of Pakistan’s Sohail Tanvir for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL’s inaugural edition in 2008.
Joseph, a lanky paceman who made his Test debut in 2016 and took 10 wickets in the West Indies’ recent home 2-1 series triumph against England, was named man of the match.
“It’s a dream start, can’t get better than this. I just wanted to bowl to the plans. When they said I was playing, I decided to keep it simple and back myself,” Joseph said.
“When I got my first wicket, I had a muted celebration since I was focused on the game that we had to win. The boys are really playing well, lot of hard work, so all we need to do is go to the park and show them what we can do.”
Chasing 137 for victory, Hyderabad were dismissed for just 96 in 17.4 overs with Deepak Hooda top-scoring with 20.
Joseph got the in-form David Warner of Australia for 15 on his very first ball. It was a fuller length delivery from Joseph that the left-handed Warner dragged on to his stumps.
Warner’s opening partner Jonny Bairstow of England also had an ordinary day with the bat, scoring 16, after falling to leg-spinner Rahul Chahar, who took two wickets.
Earlier, West Indies batsman Kieron Pollard smashed an unbeaten 46 off 26 deliveries to give three-time champions Mumbai a fighting 136-7 after they were reeling at 97-7.
The burly Pollard hit two fours and four sixes, smashing the ball to all parts of the ground as Mumbai managed 39 runs off the last two overs.
