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Catches win matches. However the ramifications of an abandoned catch can be wide-ranging. Here’s Lizard Williams’ version: After Phillip Salt and Sunil Narine went absolutely ballistic conceding just 23 runs in the opening over, Williams retired to the outfield, perhaps for an introspection on how horribly wrong had gone in his second IPL appearance. But the ball found another way to tail him.
Philip Salt, on strike, found his range in just six balls. The first ball of the second over, Khalil Ahmed pitched full and fast, prompting Salt to chase. This is incorrect, resulting in the skier catching 99 out of 100 times. But it was probably the 100th time Williams ran, settled under the ball with the reverse cup, only to spill it. Dropped catches are never pretty to watch but from Delhi Capitals’ point of view, Salt and Narine added 56 runs off the next 30 balls to give Kolkata Knight Riders a solid start to a seven-wicket victory. 21 balls left.
This dropped-catch saga also features a Harshit Rana chapter, though it’s a version where he probably lucked out big time. In the ninth over of Delhi Capitals’ innings, Varun Chakraborty slid in a length ball, which Rishabh Pant looked to swipe over short-fine leg. The shot didn’t connect, and Harshit Rana had to hold his nerve after being covered by short third man. But he didn’t. That break didn’t cost KKR much as Pant continued to hit cute shots until he got Chakarvarthy two overs later.
Palming Kuldeep Yadav’s top-edge for a six over the deep square-leg boundary could have really hurt KKR. It was a difficult chance as it was run out by Mitchell Starc—who has already endured a torrid time in this IPL—and Rana was running full tilt from deep square-leg. But every run Kuldeep scored from that moment on was a bonus as he scored an unbeaten 35, the second highest score in the IPL at 9. Fortunately for Rana, it didn’t matter in the long run thanks to KKR’s brilliant opening partnership. And partly because the key catch of the match was not fluffed.
This edition features Jake Fraser-McGurk, who has a strike rate of 233 courtesy of 46 boundary hits, half of them sixes, from his last five appearances. He is one of Delhi Capitals to come from nowhere in this IPL. And with 127 sixes at Eden Gardens—the most at any IPL venue—amassed before Monday’s game, the Capitals can’t be blamed for relying on Fraser-McGurk to provide the early momentum.
Glimpses of that form showed, first when he cleared his front leg and flicked Starc over wide long-on for a confident-dented six. A four off the next ball, this time Fraser-McGurk mishandled a full toss from Starc and sliced it over the fielder at short third man and it looked like Delhi were almost getting there. Starc was more accurate the next ball, arrowing a full, slanting delivery that Fraser-McGurk tried to whip after clearing his front leg. But Venkatesh Iyer dived forward to take the catch inches from the ground and couldn’t clear the leg-side boundary.
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