Feature

The surprise No. 8

Plays of the day from the IPL game between Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals in Kolkata

Shane Watson was utterly baffled by Sunil Narine's spin  •  BCCI

Shane Watson was utterly baffled by Sunil Narine's spin  •  BCCI

The surprise
Rahul Dravid sent in James Faulkner at No. 3 and you thought that was the surprise of the day. But as Rajasthan Royals' batsmen started falling one by one, everyone expected to see Dravid walking in. Samson came in to bat, then came Yagnik, then Owais Shah, surely Dravid was the next in line? Apparently not. He came in to bat at No. 8, possibly the lowest he has ever batted. He struck his first ball for four, missed the second and charged back for a quick couple off the last ball of the innings. Three balls. That's it for the legend.
The buggy algorithm
Shane Watson had been making smooth progress and looked set for another important innings, until Sunil Narine was introduced in the 11th over. Watson got a leading edge off the first delivery, then survived a very good shout for lbw to one that was going away, then survived another shout to one that came into him, and was finally trapped in front off the fifth ball. What does one expect of lesser batsmen when an international biggie like Watson still has no algorithm to decode the mystery?
The drop
While the rest of Royals' batting line-up was struggling against spinners on a pitch that magnified the effect, Sanju Samson, all of 18 years, was stroking the ball beautifully. But then he tried to go leg side to a Sunil Narine wrong 'un and got a thick leading edge that ballooned towards short cover. Manvinder Bisla, the wicketkeeper, called for it and comfortably got under it, only to see the ball pop out of his hands. Bisla couldn't believe it, Eoin Morgan, who had tried to catch the fumble, couldn't believe it, the bowler couldn't believe it, but reaction of the day came from team co-owner Juhi Chawla, who stared with a blank expression like she had seen a ghost.
The wide
Manvinder Bisla had just been beaten by a Brad Hogg wrong 'un which he didn't read as he went for a sweep. The next ball he tried the sweep to a chinaman that was down the leg side. He missed that one too and the keeper was unable to stop it cleanly, allowing the batsmen to change ends. The umpire, CK Nandan, didn't signal anything, which means it would have counted as runs for Bisla. The batsman, though, signalled to the umpire that he hadn't touched it after getting to the non-striker end. A polite request was all the umpire need to call it a wide belatedly.

Devashish Fuloria is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo