Bravo takes a leap of faith

A few years ago, the scoop-shot was a novelty; now, there are a million versions of the shot. Brendon McCullum added one to it. In the eighth over, he got into the position early but was made to wait for the slower ball from Rajat Bhatia. Instead of going towards the ball, though, he stayed beside the line, let the ball pass him and just before it was about to reach the wicketkeeper's gloves, he shovelled it over Sanju Samson's left shoulder.

By the 17th over, McCullum was exhausted in the Chennai heat. He tried to play a scoop, but the length was a bit too full from Shane Watson, and the ball went in front of the batsman rather than behind him. As Faf du Plessis charged down the pitch, he should have known McCullum was not going to run. By the time he got the message, he had come too far. Watson, the bowler, picked up, turned back and hit the stumps direct.

Watson found his timing in the fifth over of the chase as he hit his first boundary - a crisp cut shot. The next ball confirmed it. As he defended the length ball solidly, the connection was so sweet that the ball bounced on the sluggish pitch and leapt so high that by the time the bowler got to the ball and threw at the non-striker's end, the batsmen had sneaked a comfortable single.

Ravindra Jadeja's wait for a wicket was on its 15th day. Since taking three wickets against Kings XI Punjab, he had drawn a blank for five games. He hadn't been scoring runs either. To top it all, he had also dropped a catch in Super Kings' previous match. Then, just when he thought he had beaten Steven Smith's sweep and hit the leg stump, the umpire's made him wait some more as they checked with the TV umpire. To Jadeja's delight, the finger was raised.

Dwayne Bravo loves to dance for the crowd. And invariably, he does something every match to give himself an opportunity. When Watson drove Jadeja towards the sight-screen, he would have not expected Bravo to come in between. Even Bravo, moving to his left from long-on, did not expect to intercept it. But he jumped up a couple of feet anyway, stuck his right hand out and came down with the ball. He ran towards long-off, eyes on the crowd, then pulled off his favourite moves.