Feature

The muddled keeper and Morkel the destroyer

ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from Kolkata Knight Riders v Delhi Daredevils

The batsmen are not the only ones Sunil Narine can confound - just ask Knight Riders' keeper  •  AFP

The batsmen are not the only ones Sunil Narine can confound - just ask Knight Riders' keeper  •  AFP

The near-dismissal
Brett Lee was convinced he had a wicket off his second ball, when he had Mahela Jayawardene in a tangle. He bowled one short of a length and Jayawardene was hit on the top of the hand and the ball bounced back - towards the stumps. Lee thought it had gone on to hit them but the bounce actually carried the ball over the stumps and Jayawardene was safe.
The keeper's challenge
Knight Riders' wicketkeeper, Manvinder Bisla, seemed to be battling as much against Sunil Narine as an average batsman does. He dropped two chances off Narine's bowling, both of them against Kevin Pietersen. The first was off the carom ball - Pietersen was on two and tried to cut and his thick edge hit Bisla on the wrist. The next chance came when Pietersen tried to scoop the ball over fine leg on 11. Bisla had the ball lodged between his arm and his hip, and collected it only to spill it while trying to throw it up in celebration.
The comical fielding
Lee was giving Unmukt Chand and Ross Taylor a hard time and the pair had only managed to get singles off his final over. Off the final ball of his spell, Chand thought he had broken free. He tried to pull and skied the ball square on the leg side. Four fielders converged: Lee, the wicketkeeper and two from the deep. Manoj Tiwary eventually got there but misjudged the catch and took it on the shoulder instead of in his hands.
Comical fielding II
Rajat Bhatia pulled off an interesting catch to dismiss Ross Taylor. Taylor pulled to deep-square and Bhatia lost the ball in the lights but held his hands up hoping the ball landed in them. The ball bounced off his hands onto his knee and popped back up for him to clasp. In the end, he completed the catch but could hardly believe it.
Destroyer of the day
Morne Morkel has a habit of injuring future team-mates hands. In the final Test between South Africa and New Zealand in March, he broke Ross Taylor's arm and Taylor could not make it to the start of the IPL, where he was due to play with Morkel for Delhi. In this match, Morkel was at it again. He hit South African team-mate Jacques Kallis on the glove, forcing Kallis to retire hurt without scoring. In three weeks' time, South Africa will tour on Australia for three Tests to defend their world No.1 ranking. Kallis could not return to bat and was taken for X-rays shortly after the incident.

Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo's South Africa correspondent