He conceded a couple of boundaries and gave away 10 runs in his first over. But Samson persisted with the rookie bowler and the latter did not disappoint. After bowling a number of deliveries that came back in, he pushed one away from the right-hander Agarwal also varying the length a touch by pitching it slightly fuller – the result was an edge to the skipper behind the stumps. Sakariya had his first victim and it was a big one! He gave away just a solitary single and bowled a couple of dot balls to the Universe Boss, Chris Gayle in the powerplay.

Sakariya then displayed his prowess with the ball with Deepak Hooda and Rahul in full bloom at the death. He kept the pair in check mixing up his line and length and varying his pace – from short-pitched deliveries to the slower one outside the off stump to cramping the batsman for room to the yorker – Sakariya was brilliant in the first four deliveries of the over and showed no nerves of the big stage in what was his first match in the most coveted league in the world.

Sakariya ended with figures of 3-31 in his 4 overs and was the most restrictive bowler of the high-scoring match. He delivered as many as 13 dot balls in his spell which was a phenomenal effort by the debutant.

Sakariya was picked for INR 1.2 crore by the Royals in the mini-auction in February after going for trials with them and the Mumbai Indians. He was also a part of the RCB contingent as a net bowler in the UAE last year. He has mostly self-coached himself and risen up the ranks playing a lot of tennis-ball cricket.

Born in Vartej, a small township some 180 kms away from Rajkot, Sakariya belonged to a humble background and has been the lone bread earner for his family in the last few years. He worked with his uncle at a stationary shop in Bhavnagar to make ends meet.

Sakariya first rose to prominence when he picked 18 wickets for Saurashtra in the Cooch Behar Trophy in 2015 which gave him an opportunity to train under Glenn McGrath under the MRF Pace Foundation. He made his first-class debut for Saurashtra in the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy. Sakariya has played 15 first-class and 7 List-A matches but it is his returns in the T20 format which stand out. The left-armer has bagged 31 wickets in just 17 matches at a strike rate of 12.3 and economy rate of 7.13 in all T20 cricket.