Plays of the day from the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Kolkata
Karthik Krishnaswamy24-May-2014The over
There was a bit of seam movement and bounce on offer. Morne Morkel was swinging wildly from unplayable to unwatchable. In his first two overs, he had bowled David Warner with one that straightened into the left-hander, beaten Shikhar Dhawan’s outside edge twice, been hit for three fours off some fairly ordinary deliveries, and given away five wides off a ball that slid so far down the leg side it might have crossed the return crease.In his third over, though, he found his radar, and hit that uncomfortable spot from which he was drawing Dhawan forward and getting it to jag away and bounce past the shoulder of his bat. Three times, Morkel beat Dhawan’s outside edge this way. Amidst all that, he bowled one that came back into Dhawan, went through his gate, hit his pads, and ran away for four leg-byes.The incorrectly cupped hands
First, it was Sunil Narine. Venugopal Rao aimed an almighty swipe at Morkel, aiming for midwicket. The ball, however, flew off his outside edge in the exact opposite direction, towards third man. Narine had come some five yards off the rope, and realised he wasn’t in position to stay on his feet and catch the ball. He jumped therefore, and cupped his hands over his head. He tried to, at any rate, but the ball snuck through his hands, bounced once, and went over the boundary.In the next over, it was Yusuf Pathan’s turn, fielding at what might have been the exact same spot on the ground. The ends had changed, and Yusuf was at long-on, in a comfortable position to catch a lofted drive from Darren Sammy off Shakib Al Hasan. He cupped his hands in front of his face – or tried to, at any rate – only for the ball to sneak through between them and strike him a glancing blow on his left cheek. Yusuf, of course, has some previous experience in this department.The Karnataka run-out squad, parts 1 and 2
Dhawan drove Shakib sweetly past extra cover for four, or so he must have thought, before Manish Pandey dived full-length to his right to pull off an excellent stop. Dhawan, halfway down the pitch, was suddenly forced to go from holding his pose for the cameras to turning around and haring desperately back to regain his crease. He didn’t make it. Pandey threw flat and hard without bothering to get back on his feet, and Robin Uthappa, the wicketkeeper, barely had to move to collect the ball and remove the bails.Two overs later, the Pandey-Uthappa combination was at it again, with a bit of help from their Karnataka team-mate Vinay Kumar. First, Vinay sprinted to his left from deep square leg to cut off a sweep from Venugopal Rao. He pushed the ball into the path of Pandey, who was running from deep midwicket. Pandey swooped, picked up, and threw flat and hard to Uthappa. Rao, who had slipped while turning for the second run, had no chance.The Karnataka run-out squad, part 3
Darren Sammy had taken a painful blow to his right kneecap when an inside-edge had cannoned past the flap of his pad. He had been cursing, grimacing and limping his way through every run since that point. Jason Holder, therefore, was taken by surprise when he found Sammy three-quarters of the way down the pitch, trying to steal a bye, after he swung and missed off Vinay. Holder finally responded to Sammy’s call and started running, but it was far too late. Uthappa picked up the ball behind the stumps and lobbed it to Vinay, who ran back to the stumps at his end and knocked off the bails.The incorrectly cupped hands (Sunrisers edition)
It needed an astonishing innings from Yusuf Pathan to get Knight Riders over the line quickly enough to take them to second place. Sunrisers had two easy chances to make it a brief and entirely forgettable Yusuf innings, and they fluffed both. Yusuf hadn’t even gotten off the mark when he slogged Karn Sharma wide of long-on. S Anirudha cupped his hands in front of his body – or tried to, at any rate – only for the ball to burst through and land what one of his former Chennai Super Kings teammates might have described as a blow to his chest.Three overs later, Yusuf swatted Parvez Rasool towards deep square leg, where Dale Steyn ran to his right and put both his hands above his head to pluck the ball out of the air. The ball hit his hands, and plopped out, over the boundary for six.The unintentional assist
Ryan ten Doeschate had just come to the crease at the fall of Robin Uthappa’s wicket, and he knew Knight Riders needed to step up the run rate if they had any hope of qualifying. He smashed the first ball he faced straight back down the ground, and Karn Sharma, the bowler, stuck his left hand out more out of instinct than, perhaps, any real desire to try and catch such a powerful hit. The ball bounced painfully off Karn’s hand, towards Sammy at mid-off. The bowler was still writhing on the ground when Sammy saw ten Doeschate out of his crease and threw to the keeper’s end to run him out.
