The return of the Steyn

When Yuvraj Singh swatted Ashish Reddy towards midwicket, there was only one place it was expected to land; over the rope. It had the usual Yuvraj stamp of timing and power but although it flew swiftly over the outfield, it never gained much height. Still, it took a perfectly timed leap at the edge of the boundary from David Warner to pluck a stinger. Warner's reaction said it all. He roared and hopped a few times, then charged towards his team-mates. Yuvraj returned, his favourite weapon blunted.

Dale Steyn had expressed in his newspaper column of his desire to be in the Sunrisers squad more than once. Included for their fourth game, all eyes were on him as he came in to bowl the second over of the match. There were no warm-up deliveries: the first one, a quick outswinger, caught the outside edge of Shreyas Iyer's bat but landed short of the slip cordon. By the second, he was hitting high 140s. A wicket in the first over would have been perfect for the bowler, but with the pitch not offering much pace, the fourth was commandingly driven on the up by Iyer.

Steyn's wait for a wicket in Sunrisers' colours was looking to extend to another game. He had bowled with fire but without reward going into his last over. JP Duminy was prepared to take him on, hitting him for a six over wide long-on. Then, off the last delivery of Steyn's spell, as Duminy went across to off to paddle the full delivery, he only managed to deflect it on to his stumps. Steyn was jubilant and perhaps relieved. After three wicketless games and 18 wicketless overs, Steyn had a result.

If you skimmed through the scorecard, you won't have an inkling that Daredevils won the match due to a remarkable effort in the field by Mayank Agarwal. If Karn Sharma had earned six off the penultimate ball, the scores would have been tied and Karn, a decent batsman, would have been on striker. But Agarwal ensured none of that happened. At the deep point boundary, Agarwal timed his jump superbly to intercept the ball, but as he realised he was falling over, he pushed the ball back in the field of play, preventing a certain six. With five needed off the last ball, Sunrisers could only get one.

No, not his consecutive boundaries in the sixth over. This double-strike did not fetch him a run. Warner had lofted the first ball of the sixth over, bowled by Domnic Muthuswami, back over the the bowler's head and was eyeing that area again next ball. But his tennis forehand played back down the pitch was a bit too straight and, to the good fortune of the umpire, uprooted two of the stumps from their pegs. It was hit so hard that the bowler did not get time to react while Shikhar Dhawan remained stuck outside the crease.