1st Time In 19 Seasons! Jofra Archer Scripts Unique IPL Record vs KKR

Jofra Archer for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2026 [Source: AP]

Jofra Archer wrecked KKR early in the innings in match number 28 of the IPL 2026 season. Defending 156 for a win, the express paceman knocked over KKR opener Tim Seifert for a first-ball duck, before his new ball partner Nandre Burger got rid of home captain Ajinkya Rahane the following over.

Notably, Archer’s new ball blitz now places the Rajasthan Royals fast bowler at the top of a rare all-time IPL record, joining Mohammed Shami in the process.

Jofra Archer on top for most IPL wickets on first ball of an innings

Jofra Archer has now taken the joint-highest number of wickets in the first ball of an innings in the history of the IPL. The Rajasthan Royals fast bowler has so far snared five such wickets in his career, thus putting him on levelling terms with legendary Indian paceman and IPL journeyman Mohammed Shami.

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On April 19, Jofra Archer knocked over KKR’s firebrand opener Tim Seifert off the first ball of the run chase in match number 28 of the IPL 2026 season. Before castling Seifert, England’s World Cup winning speedster dismissed the likes of Prithvi Shaw, Priyansh Arya, Phil Salt and Abhishek Sharma for first-ball ducks in the opening over of the innings.

Following Archer and Shami, as many as seven other bowlers have taken a wicket on the first ball of an IPL innings three times in their careers, namely Trent Boult, Umesh Yadav Lasith Malinga, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Ashok Dinda and Pat Cummins. Here is a look at the list of some bowlers with the highest number of wickets of the first ball of an IPL innings in history.

Most wickets in first ball of an IPL innings (0.1 overs)

Jofra Archer goes three in a row with first-ball strikes

Remarkably, Jofra Archer has now scalped a wicket off the first ball of an innings thrice in a row this IPL 2026 season. Over the last 10 days, the Rajasthan Royals fast bowler dismissed Phil Salt during his team’s home fixture against the RCB, and also trapped SRH opener Abhishek Sharma in Hyderabad.

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Archer is now the first and only cricketer in IPL history to have struck a wicket off the first ball of an innings thrice in a row.

KKR vs Rajasthan Royals: Story so far

Rajasthan Royals batted first at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata and charted 155-9 from 20 overs. Notably, the visitors raced to 81-0 in 8.4 overs before KKR bowlers scripted a remarkable fightback for the hosts.

Attacking opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi top-scored with 46 off 28 balls, and Yashasvi Jaiswal composed 39 from 29 balls. None of the other Rajasthan Royals batters, however, managed to go past the 20-run mark.

For the KKR, Varun Chakravarthy unfurled the spell of the innings with figures of 3-14 in his four overs. Kartik Tyagi also struck thrice in his four-over spell at the expense of 22 runs.

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