Mark Wood produces an outstanding spell to rattle through FIVE wickets in the Indian Premier League

Sam Curran had a successful start to his career as the highest-paid cricketer in the Indian Premier League but was eclipsed by his best-ever performance by England team-mate Mark Wood.

In his first match since being won for a staggering £1.85million, Curran hit an unbeaten 26 of 17 balls from No 6 for Punjab Kings and later came in before the rain to capture the crucial scalp from Andre Russell.

As wet weather blanketed Mohali soon after, it denied Kolkata Knight Riders the final four overs of a 192 chase, handing them a seven-run loss by DLS method.

However, Wood – a relative snip of £735,000 – put on an even more impressive performance during a 193-for-six defense, winning three wickets in his first two overs under a five-wicket first pull to defeat Delhi’s percussion in Lucknow Super Giants ’50 to loot – run to win.

During his first outburst, the 90mph Durham bowler stormed through the defenses of both India international Prithvi Shaw and Australia all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, bowling them with back-to-back deliveries and then letting Sarfaraz Khan get caught on the fine leg toxic bouncer to plummet the Ricky Ponting-coached Capitals from 41 without a loss to 48 for three.

Mark Wood celebrated a dominant bowling magic in the Indian Premier League on Saturday

Wood celebrated with his colleagues after taking another wicket for the Lucknow Super Giants

Wood took the scalp from Prithvi Shaw (pictured) of the Delhi Capitals in a resounding win for the Super Giants

By then the 33-year-old had numbers of 2-0-3-3 and mishaps from Axar Patel and Chetan Sakariya in his third term – the last over of the game – saw him finish 5 for 14 on his late Lucknow debut.

Wood, who was signed ahead of the 2022 season but had to step down with an elbow injury that required surgery, comfortably surpassed his previous record of four for 25 in the process.

In his only other IPL game five years ago, Wood lost 49 runs from four overs for the Chennai Super Kings in a one-wicket win over the Mumbai Indians.