IPL 2021: 3 best bowling performances from Week 1

The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is only a week old, but we've already seen some scintillating contests between bat and ball.

The pitches at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai and the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai were initially expected to favour the bowlers and the batsmen respectively. And although we've seen a couple of contests where they've lived up to their billing, both pitches have provided even clashes.

Two five-wicket hauls have been taken in IPL 2021 so far, both of which came against the Mumbai Indians - a team which had previously never conceded a five-fer to an opposition bowler.

Here, we rank the 3 best bowling performances from Week 1 of IPL 2021. Note: The first 8 matches (from RCB vs MI to PBKS vs CSK) have been considered for the purposes of this article.

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#3 Andre Russell (5/15 in 2 overs, IPL 2021 Match 5 - KKR vs MI)

Andre Russell

Andre Russell's role with the bat in the Kolkata Knight Riders lineup may be one of the IPL's biggest mysteries. But with the ball, it is clear that he is the designated death bowler.

In Match 5 of IPL 2021, against the Mumbai Indians, Russell came in to bowl as late as the 18th over. He immediately made an impact by dismissing Kieron Pollard and Marco Jansen off consecutive deliveries, pinning MI on the backfoot.

The West Indian then followed it up with a three-wicket final over, which saw him scalp Krunal Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah and Rahul Chahar. All five wickets were caught in the deep as MI managed only 152 all out in their 20 overs.

However, Russell couldn't replicate the same heroics with the bat. He laboured his way to 9 off 15 balls as KKR fell 10 runs short of MI's total despite appearing to be in complete control of the run-chase.

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#2 Harshal Patel (5/27 in 4 overs, IPL 2021 Match 1 - MI vs RCB)

Harshal Patel

Traded to the Royal Challengers Bangalore from the Delhi Capitals ahead of the IPL 2021 auction, Harshal Patel surprised everyone with his performance in the tournament opener.

Returning to the franchise where he had his breakout season, Patel was the fifth bowler to be used by RCB captain Virat Kohli. He ran through the MI middle order, restricting the 5-time champions to just 159/9 with his bag of subtle variations. Patel sent back Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya and Marco Jansen to finish with figures of 5/27.

RCB used all 20 overs available to them to get over the line, with none other than Patel hitting the winning runs.

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#1 Deepak Chahar (4/13 in 4 overs, IPL 2021 Match 8 - PBKS vs CSK)

Deepak Chahar

Match 8 between the Punjab Kings and the Chennai Super Kings was expected to be a high-scoring affair, with both teams possessing a number of world-class batsmen and iffy bowlers. But the game turned out to be a polar opposite.

PBKS got off to a nightmare start in the powerplay, thanks to a brilliant bowling display from Deepak Chahar. The swing bowler sent Mayank Agarwal back to the hut with a peach of a delivery, before deceiving Chris Gayle with a well-disguised knucke-ball.

Chahar then had Nicholas Pooran caught on the fine-leg boundary, following it up with the scalp of the in-form Deepak Hooda. He sent down his four overs on the trot after opening the bowling, and finished with figures of 4/13.

Chahar was rightfully adjudged the Player of the Match as CSK coasted to a 6-wicket win.