Kumar Karthikeya took 6 wickets (Photo: PTI)
Kumar Kartikeya: In the Madhya Pradesh Premier League, there was a match between Royal Nimar Eagles and Bhopal Leopards on 22 June. Royal Nimar Eagles won this match played at Holkar Stadium, Indore by 8 wickets. 28 year old left arm spinner Kumar Karthikeya played a big role in that victory. Who took 6 wickets with a hat-trick in the match. Karthikeya may have missed out on equaling or breaking the world record but he has definitely become the second Indian bowler to take so many wickets in a single T20 match. Kumar Karthikeya, who had a career-best performance in MPL 2026, remained empty handed in the IPL 2026 auction. Nobody had bought them.
No one bought CSK’s net bowler in IPL
In the mega auction of IPL 2026, Kumar Karthikeya had kept his base price at Rs 30 lakh. But still no franchise was ready to give him this amount. Later CSK made him their net bowler. Now in the Madhya Pradesh Premier League 2026 match against Bhopal Leopards team, he has not only shown his true ability but has also given a befitting reply to the IPL franchises.
Second Indian to take 6 wickets in T20 match
Kumar Karthikeya took 6 wickets for 24 runs in 3 overs. During this, he also took a hat-trick by dismissing Pawan Nirwani, Pranjul Puri and Anurag Malviya in 3 consecutive balls. He is the second Indian after Deepak Chahar to take so many wickets in one inning of T20. The only difference is that Deepak Chahar got that success in International T20 and Karthikeya in the domestic T20 league. Deepak Chahar took 6 wickets for 7 runs in 3.2 overs in the T20I played against Bangladesh in 2019, which is the best performance of any Indian.
World record saved from breaking
If Karthikeya had taken one more wicket, he could have equaled the world record in Men’s T20. The record of taking the most 7 wickets in an inning of T20 is in the name of Malaysia’s Syazdul Idrus. He took 7 wickets for 8 runs in 4 overs against China. Whereas in any domestic T20 match, this record is in the name of Colin Ackerman of Netherlands, who took 7 wickets for 18 runs in 4 overs.
Amazing effect of Kartikeya
The effect of the web of spin woven by Kumar Karthikeya was that the Bhopal Leopards team, which came to bat first, could not even play the full 20 overs. It was destroyed in just 13 overs. The entire team was all out after scoring just 107 runs. In reply, Royal Nimar Eagles got an easy target of 108 runs, which they achieved in just 9.2 overs. This team scored 112 runs after losing 2 wickets and won the match by 8 wickets, whose hero was Kumar Karthikeya in true sense.
