Feature

Faf caught faffing about

Plays of the day from the match between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings, in Dubai

The hare: Steven Smith beat two other fielders to the ball to pull off a stunner  •  BCCI

The hare: Steven Smith beat two other fielders to the ball to pull off a stunner  •  BCCI

The catchsmith
The moment Brendon McCullum made contact with the ball on the second delivery of the sixth over, it looked like the ball was aiming for the top of Burj Khalifa. It didn't have the legs though. As the ball descended behind midwicket, three fielders converged towards it. Abhishek Nayar, running backwards from midwicket was the closest to it. Stuart Binny, running in from deep midwicket probably had the best chance. But Steven Smith hared along from mid-on, going backwards, slightly sideways, dived, overtook Nayar while in mid-air and let the ball be absorbed into his spongy palms.
The whacksmith
Dwayne Smith probably still remembers James Faulkner's barbs from the World T20. His four consecutive hits that quickly put the lid on the bowler's post-Steven-Smith-catch elation certainly showed his liking for Faulkner. The first ball after McCullum's dismissal was smashed over long-leg, the second was delicately cut past short third-man, the third drilled past the bowler and the fourth whacked over long-off. He also had taken eight runs from four balls off Faulkner earlier.
The run-out
Chennai Super Kings' innings hit a roadblock as soon as the slower bowlers were introduced. The dismissals of Dwayne Smith and Suresh Raina in quick succession meant a lot depended on MS Dhoni and Faf du Plessis to take Super Kings to safety. However, as Dhoni punched a Rajat Bhatia delivery back towards the bowler, his heart would have been in his mouth as the bowler dived to his right to attempt the catch. Bhatia didn't get the ball, but did get a wicket - he managed to get a touch before the ball hit the stumps. Du Plessis was faffing about a couple of meters down the pitch.
The wides
You could see what Dhawal Kulkarni was trying to do in his third over - the 17th of Super Kings' innings. Afterall, not too long ago, Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara had employed the same plan of bowling wide yorkers to dig India into a hole in the World T20 final. It didn't quiet come off as well for Kulkarni. Targetting the wide marker, Kulkarni bowled four wides - three of them in a row - which took the sheen off his otherwise impressive spell.
The juggle
The army-camouflage print wicketkeeping gloves that MS Dhoni so loves proved to be less than useful as the white-ball refused to go into them after Steven Smith had missed the ball in the 10th over of the chase. Smith, out of the crease, turned back in despair to see the ball had hit Dhoni on the wrists before popping up. Dhoni still had time to grab the ball and takes the bails off, but the ball kept on going away, allowing the batsman to get back into the crease.
The misjudgement
Dhawal Kulkarni sent a few tremors down towards the Super Kings camps as he hit 14 in three balls in R Ashwin's final over to bring down the equation to 10 needed off the last two deliveries. Although he wasn't able to time the penultimate delivery, he needed at least two from it to keep the possibility of a tie open. Pravin Tambe, however, showed a lack of awareness of the situation as he tried to turn down the second. He belatedly responded to Kulkarni's call only to be run out at the non-striker's end and bring the match to a close.

Devashish Fuloria is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo