Zaheer's dream return, and Thakur's nightmare debut

When JP Duminy slid one past an advancing Shaun Marsh to hit him in front, the batsman was as preoccupied by the umpire's reaction to the appeal as the bowler. A sharp Yuvraj Singh at slip though, was awake to opportunity. Seeing Marsh's lazy return to the crease, Yuvraj collected the deflection off the batsman's pads and removed the bails. The umpire would rule Marsh out by lbw, after a long pause, but even before he lifted his finger, Yuvraj was already appealing to the square-leg umpire, having run the batsman out as well.

On his return to competitive cricket after almost a year out of the game, thanks to injury, Zaheer Khan helped justify his high price-tag for this season's IPL, with two wickets that sent the opposition into a nosedive. His first victim was former India team-mate Virender Sehwag, also 36 and making a comeback of sorts himself, after being benched for the last match. Zaheer had Sehwag caught at short point, before next over, he removed the other opener Manan Vohra as well.

The fourth ball of Imran Tahir's 20th over produced cricket none of the three players involved would be proud of. Tahir first floated the ball up well wide of off stump and turned it away. If batsman Anureet Singh had not made contact, it would probably have been deemed a wide. But the batsman did swing at it, and he connected poorly, sending the ball gently in the air towards Yuvraj at point. The fielder only had to take a few steps back and close his hands on the ball, but let it bounce out comically from his grasp. Of the three, Anureet made some amends for his part in the farce, hitting the final ball of the innings over cow corner for six.

With his list of recent Ranji Trophy victims running long, 23-year-old seamer Shardul Thakur arrived at his IPL debut with considerable hype around him. But he would proceed to make as inauspicious an IPL a start as possible, as Mumbai team-mate Shreyas Iyer scrambled his brains. His third ball, short and wide, was effortlessly lifted over wide-third man for six, and his fourth ball was almost identical, with Iyer's response also being the same. His attempts to correct his line went horribly as well, as he first delivered a leg-side wide, then was clipped to the fence off the pads. His economy barely improved after that. He conceded 38 from three overs, though he did eventually get Iyer out.