A temperamental bail, a rare Gayle fail

The last time Hanuma Vihari bowled in a Twenty20 game was more than three years ago. So when he had Chris Gayle caught behind off his first ball, it should have been a bigger surprise to Vihari himself than to his team-mates, the fans and commentators. Leaving aside the surprise element, it was a good enough first ball to dismiss a batsman of Gayle's quality.

There could have been a run-out in the 14th over of Sunrisers Hyderabad's innings. Vihari had pushed the ball to mid-off from where the throw from Gayle had him short by a few inches. But the bails took time to get off the groove on which they were set, saving the batsman from the long walk back.

Vinay Kumar is an agile fieldsman and he gave a good account of himself when he slid full length near the backward point rope and saved a certain boundary. That was not all. He picked himself up, sprinted to where he had pushed the ball and arrowed in a throw to Arun Karthik's* gloves as Amit Mishra was caught several inches short of the crease. It was at par with Gurkeerat Singh's catch earlier in the day, given the dramatic nature of both efforts.

Royal Challengers Bangalore were getting out of the woods through their captain's will. Virat Kohli had put together a fourth wicket partnership, and began to ascertain his dominance, smashing Ishant Sharma out of the ground. It went 95 meters deep into the stands, a shot oozing with Kohli's natural confidence.

Kumar Sangakkara had used Vihari for one over very successfully, but Ashish Reddy too turned out to be a one-hit wonder. In his only over, he got rid of the dangerous Kohli off the last ball. Reddy showed good reflexes to take a low return catch, but surprisingly that was his last ball of the match.

* April 7 7.45pm The wicketkeeper's name has been corrected