A damning statistic about the number of maidens played by Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul has gone viral in recent days, catching the eye of some notable figures within the game. The only issue is, it’s fake.

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After Rahul played out a maiden off the bowling of Trent Boult, the debate over his intent and strike rate raised its head again. He eventually made a 32-ball 39 – an innings which proved useful in a low-scoring, 10-run win. But a stat posted on Twitter seemingly laid bare the extent of Rahul’s struggles.

“There have been 27 first over maidens since 2014 in IPLs” wrote Twitter user Roshan Rai. “KL Rahul has played 11 of them.”

The tweet was widely shared and repeated, gaining nearly a million views on Twitter. It was also highlighted by pundit Aakash Chopra on his YouTube channel, saying it was shared with him by his editor. “That is not something Rahul should be proud of,” Chopra said.

However, the stat is incorrect. That maiden was, in fact, the first first-over maiden Rahul has played out in the Indian Premier League. The tweet from Rai is still live, despite him being called out by some notable sources.

“Roshan Rai peddled a fake stat and refused to delete even after people calling him out,” wrote former India cricketer Dodda Ganesh on Twitter. “Now this fake stat is being circulated in the WhatsApp groups. Well people like these are harmful to the society. The shamelessness to not delete this fakery [sic].”

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