De Villiers shows how to tackle a yorker

Before Royal Challengers Bangalore's game against Kings XI Punjab, Virat Kohli had scored 541 runs in eight games this season at an average of 90.16. In the third over, Mohit Sharma bowled an outswinger on a good length outside off. A leaden-footed Kohli threw his hands at the ball, which skewed off the outside half of his bat, lobbed over point and went for four. Kohli wasn't in control, but got lucky.

Mohit's next ball was on a similar line and length and Kohli reached for it again. He could not keep the square drive down because his feet weren't close enough to the pitch of the ball. Marcus Stoinis, at backward point, set himself to take the catch, but the ball burst through his hands. Kohli wasn't in control, but he got lucky again.

Mohit and Sandeep Sharma had executed their yorkers perfectly in the final overs of their previous game to lift Kings XI to a nine-run win. However, that strategy wasn't quite so foolproof against AB de Villiers. In the 16th over, de Villiers stayed low to a Sandeep Sharma yorker, got inside the line and swept the ball over fine leg for six. In his next over, Sandeep, bowling from around the wicket, missed his yorker to de Villiers. Aided by a leg-stump line, the batsman scooped the low full toss over backward square leg for another six.

Hashim Amla's IPL debut was a nightmare: he offered four run-out opportunities and Delhi Daredevils finally converted one of them to dismiss him for 1 off 5. Against Royal Challengers, off the last ball of the fifth over, Amla missed a sweep and the ball pinged off towards short cover. He set off for another questionable run even as the bowler Yuzvendra Chahal swooped on the ball, picked it up, turned around and fired an accurate throw at the non-striker's end. The Royal Challengers fielders celebrated. However, it seemed like Amla had judged this run to perfection, for he just made the crease.

A week ago, Andre Russell danced down to Chahal, having misread his slider, and was about to be stumped, but KL Rahul, the wicketkeeper, was unable to hold onto the ball. Royal Challengers rued the missed opportunity as Russell went on to play a match-winning knock.

This time, Wriddhiman Saha stepped out for a wild heave against the same bowler, and once again Rahul was unable to collect it cleanly. Before the bad memories could bubble up, Rahul recovered the ball, which had hit him on the chin, and whipped the bails off before Saha could stumble back into his crease.

One ball later, Rahul was given the opportunity to pull off another stumping, as Chahal beat David Miller with a slider, and this time he didn't even fumble.