The non-performing asset, the fake whistleblower

When JP Duminy aimed for the stumps at the non-striker's end in the second over, he had no distractions. Gautam Gambhir, stranded in the middle of the pitch, had given up. Albie Morkel, the bowler, did not think of coming up to the stumps either. Duminy, at mid-off, could have actually beaten Gambhir to the stumps. But he missed and Gambhir was reprieved. Next ball, Robin Uthappa pushed it to Duminy again and charged down the pitch. This time Duminy did hit the stumps but the batsman had safely made it in.

Yuvraj Singh has been struggling. He has not been the same player he used to be for quite sometime now. He fell for a two-ball duck today. But it's not just the batting that has suffered. His fielding, once his forte, has deteriorated, too. Today, there was another such instance when Robin Uthappa drove straight to him at midwicket in the sixth over. A straight-forward chance, but Yuvraj just couldn't grab on to it. The only silver lining for him was with the ball, as he bowled Manish Pandey to pick up his first wicket this IPL.

Yusuf Pathan, in the 16th over, had just smoked Amit Mishra for a six over long-off but couldn't get under the next delivery, a yorker. He still managed to get some power behind it, but Mishra dived to his right to catch the clear bump chance. However, Kedar Jadhav, the wicketkeeper, did not realise the ball had bounced and let out a scream of "catch it", startling Yusuf. The batsman immediately turned and said, "daraata kyun hai? (Why do you scare?)".

A number of catches were dropped on the day, but if there was a prize for the easiest one, Gambhir would have pipped Yuvraj easily. Shreyas Iyer was duly beaten by superb Brad Hogg wrong 'un in the bowler's first over. He toe-ended an attempted cut shot and lobbed a dolly towards Gambhir at point. The fielder waited for the ball to arrive, his hands in front of his face, but somehow left a hole for the ball to sneak through. Hogg could only smile.