The missed call and failed juggle

Lasith Malinga took a while to get his field right, and when he appeared ready to bowl the first ball of the match, his captain, Rohit Sharma, walked up to him. The two were locked in a long, animated chat, seemingly bouncing off a thousand ideas off each other. Just when you wondered what the fuss was all about, Malinga thundered in and pitched one outside off only for Mayank Agarwal to offer a loose waft. The edge was snaffled by Parthiv Patel, and Malinga and Rohit let out a collective roar.

Shreyas Iyer was particularly severe on Mitchell McClenaghan in the fourth over, smacking him for fours off the first two deliveries. He attempted an encore of his second boundary, a sliced, uppish drive over cover-point, off the fourth ball. This wasn't timed as well and the ball hung up over cover point with Hardik Pandya and J Suchith converging in pursuit of the catch. Only that both of them forgot to call. Pandya got to the ball first but failed to latch on to it, his concentration possibly affected by the sight of an approaching Suchith. He, however, kept the ball in play with a juggle, but Suchith, who was right next to him, couldn't take it either. McClenaghan, already annoyed at being hit for two fours, sunk to his knees and yelled in frustration.

Kedar Jadhav was intent on sweeping everything in his sight, and he top-edged one off Harbhajan Singh. Lasith Malinga, at short fine leg, turned around and ran after the ball. As he put in an ungainly slide to retard the ball's progress, Malinga's left knee jammed into the turf, a piece of it exploding on impact. There were a few worried faces as Malinga hobbled around. But he was back in business in no time, stepping up to bowl at full tilt the very next over.

Pandya had just been hit for a six by Angelo Mathews. As he ran in to bowl the next ball, he slipped at the point of delivery and tumbled once, and again. Pandya got up with a wry smile and returned for his next ball. He had good reason to hold the smile, as Mathews holed out to long off to give him his first IPL wicket. Guess who the catcher was? His old juggling mate, Suchith.

Malinga had deceived Yuvraj Singh with a slower one that bounced more than he expected, and Parthiv dived across to his left to take the edge. Or did he? Parthiv and Malinga were confident they had their man, but Yuvraj chose to hang around. Replays showed he was right, as the ball had bounced in front of the wicketkeeper. Parthiv grinned sheepishly on seeing the replay and promptly apologised to Yuvraj.

The next ball, Yuvraj scorched one uppishly towards backward point, and it looked headed to the boundary. But Lendl Simmons had other ideas, leaping high and to his right to pluck the ball with one hand. Simmons' team-mates enveloped him in delight. Even Jonty Rhodes, the fielding coach, was thrilled, clapping till his hands hurt.