Parthiv sweeps to slip

How do you give a catch to regulation first slip when the ball goes down the leg side? Parthiv Patel showed how. He went for the sweep against the spin of R Ashwin but missed the ball on the first attempt. The ball glanced off his body and made contact with the back of the bat as he completed his bat swing, looping up to Suresh Raina at slip.

Usually, the yorker is a fast delivery fired in by the quick bowlers. With Chris Gayle hacking away like a villain in a horror movie, Ashwin showed how a spinner can bowl a flighted yorker. Gayle was shuffling around the crease to try throw the bowler off his line, but Ashwin responded with a loopy delivery that drifted sharply in to handcuff Gayle, who could only jam down his bat to keep the ball from crashing into his stumps. It was the start of an over of torture for Gayle, who was helpless against the sharp spin.

With even accomplished players like Virat Kohli and Gayle were finding it difficult during the chase, Royal Challengers fans were looking to AB de Villiers to win this one. He played a game-defining cameo, but only after a nervy beginning. On the first ball, he just managed to drag his backfoot into the crease before MS Dhoni took off the bails. On the second, he chipped a catch to Ashwin at extra cover, but the fielder couldn't latch on to the tough chance. On the third, he survived a loud lbw appeal from David Hussey. After that, though, he showed why he's world's No. 1 batsman.

When the ball raced towards fine leg in the seventh over, Suresh Raina chased it down and dived to keep the ball from reaching the rope. As he dived, he knocked over the triangular advertising skirting after stopping the ball. Seeing that Gayle was satisfied with two, and not going for the third, Raina first adjusted the skirting to make sure it was back in place before throwing the ball back to the keeper.

A month past his 42nd birthday, Muttiah Muralitharan is too old to bother with diving in the outfield. When Raina guided the ball down to third man in the 14th over, Murali gave chase from inside the circle. He caught up with the ball, and as the less than athletic have done for years, stuck his boot in the path of the ball, only for the ball to deflect off his foot to the rope. One ball later, Gayle showed Murali how it is done, moving across from short fine leg and getting the foot down in time to save himself a lengthy chase.