Jofra Archer is leading Rajasthan Royals’ fast-bowling attack in their IPL 2026 match against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday, April 19. In the fixture at Eden Gardens, Archer opened the bowling for RR and struck on the very first ball of KKR’s innings, dismissing Tim Seifert.
Seifert was clean bowled by Archer for a golden duck. This wicket helped Archer equal Mohammed Shami’s record for the most wickets taken on the first ball of an IPL innings.
Like Shami, Archer has now dismissed a batter on the opening ball of an IPL innings five times.
In RR’s previous two matches as well — against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on April 10 and Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 13 — Archer picked up wickets on the first ball, dismissing Phil Salt and Abhishek Sharma
respectively for golden ducks.
In the list of bowlers with most wickets on the first ball of IPL innings, Shami and Archer are followed by Praveen Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Trent Boult, Lasith Malinga, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashok Dinda and Pat Cummins (3 wickets each for all of them).
Wickets off the first ball of an IPL innings most often
- 5 – Mohammed Shami
- 5 – Jofra Archer
- 3 – Praveen Kumar
- 3 – Umesh Yadav
- 3 – Trent Boult
- 3 – Lasith Malinga
- 3 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar
- 3 – Ashok Dinda
- 3 – Pat Cummins
Shami has dismissed a batter on the first ball of an IPL innings five times in 124 matches, whereas the ongoing KKR-RR match is Archer’s 58th IPL game. Apart from RR, the England pacer has also played for Mumbai Indians.
The wicket of Seifert, who replaced Finn Allen in KKR’s playing XI after five matches of IPL 2026, also helped Archer extend his tally of wickets to 65 in IPL for RR.
He is now RR’s joint-second highest wicket-taker in the IPL. If he manages to take two more wickets for the Rajasthan Royals in the ongoing match, then he will break Yuzvendra Chahal’s record and become RR’s highest wicket-taker in the IPL.
Most wickets in IPL for Rajasthan Royals
| POSITION | PLAYER | MATCHES | WICKETS | BEST FIGURES |
| 1. | Yuzvendra Chahal | 46 | 66 | 5/40 |
| =2. | Jofra Archer | 53* | 65 | 3/15 |
| =2. | Siddharth Trivedi | 76 | 65 | 4/25 |
| 3. | Shane Watson | 78 | 61 | 3/10 |
| 4. | Shane Warne | 55 | 57 | 4/21 |
| 5. | James Faulkner | 42 | 47 | 5/16 |
Chahal, who tops the list of bowlers with the most wickets in the IPL, dismissed 66 batters in 46 IPL matches for RR from 2022 to 2024.
