Chennai Super Kings (CSK) pacer Shardul Thakur got off to the perfect start in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), bowling a wicket-maiden in the powerplay to help his side take control in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

Thakur dismissed opener Venkatesh Iyer in the very first delivery of his first over and then bowled five dot balls to skipper Eoin Morgan, as CSK curtailed the explosive start the KKR batsmen had made. 

KKR were 50/2 after Thakur’s over, the sixth of the match and the last of the powerplay. 

Thakur also took an unofficial hattrick, as he dismissed AB de Villiers and Devdutt Padikkal with his final two deliveries in CSK’s match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Friday, and dismissed Iyer with his first ball on Sunday.  

The feat delighted fans on social media, as ‘Lord Shardul’ became one of the top trends on Twitter soon after.  

“Bowling wicket maiden in powerplay is not easy as Lord made it look,” one user tweeted. 

“Lord shardul ,Shardul Thakur , lord thakur nd wicket maiden. 4 trend one man,” another said. 

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Meanwhile, one fan reminded that Thakur has not been selected for the upcoming T20 World Cup. “Reminder :- Lord Shardul Thakur is not in the World Cup Squad…

He just bowled a wicket maiden over..
He also took an unofficial hatrick. 2 wickets in his last 2 balls vs RCB, now wicket in the first ball against KKR
#CSKvsKKR #KKRvCSK,” a user tweeted. 

Check out some other reactions:

The match got off to an dramatic start, as Shubhman Gill struck consecutive boundaries off Deepak Chahar before adjuded LBW, which was overturned after a review. But there was another twist to the tale as Gill was then run out by Ambati Rayudu in the final delivery. 

There was a mixup between Gill and Iyer after the former nudged the delivery on the on-side. After almost running halway down the track, Gill was turned back and couldn’t make it back in the crease before Rayudu’s direct hit rattled the stumps.