Watch: England opening batter Phil Salt continued his outstanding IPL campaign by briefly threatening the all-time IPL record for the fastest fifty in the competition in KKR’s game today (April 21) against RCB.
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Salt was dismissed in the fifth over of the KKR innings but not before he had already blasted 48 runs off 14 deliveries; the IPL record for the fastest half-century is Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 13-ball fifty against KKR last year.
The 27-year-old top order batter was particularly productive off the bowling of New Zealand speedster Lockie Ferguson. Ferguson, making just his second appearance of the season, was brought on to bowl the fourth over of the contest.
Salt greeted Ferguson’s introduction into the attack by pulling his first ball of the day over the leg-side boundary for six. Ferguson was then unfortunate, inducing an inside edge that narrowly missed the stumps before racing towards the fine-leg boundary for four more runs.
The third ball of the over was smashed over cover for four before the fourth delivery was struck for six, this time down the ground. The last two deliveries of the over brought Salt two more boundaries; 28 runs were scored off the over, all off the bat of Salt.
Salt was dismissed in the following over, picking out a fielder in the deep two runs short of a half-century. It continues the Englishman’s excellent IPL for the high-flying KKR. Salt is the fifth highest-scoring overseas batter, doing so an exceptional strike rate of 169.38.