KP's reprieve

The umpires in the IPL have been kitted with a portable camera strapped on to their hats, a kind of a third eye. But in the seventh over of Delhi Daredevils' innings, all eyes were on Sanjay Hazare, the square-leg umpire, for his non-use of technology. Kevin Pietersen was on 2 when he wandered out of the crease after being hit on the pads, not realising the ball had not gone too far to the leg side. By the time he turned back, Sanju Samson, the wicketkeeper, had fired a direct hit. It all looked close to the naked eye but Hazare chose not to check with the TV umpire. As it turned out, Pietersen was a few inches short. Shane Watson and Rajat Bhatia protested the decision briefly, but to no avail. Embarrassed by the TV replays, Hazare could just afford a sheepish smile.

Quinton de Kock has shown a preference for leg-side play during this IPL and it reflected in three shots he played during his attractive innings, all of them to deliveries outside off. He bent his knees to drag a full ball outside off to the fine-leg boundary in the third over to bring his 2000th T20 run and played a similar shot later in his innings to Rajat Bhatia, off a low full-toss. The best of the lot, however, was an effortless flick shot off Watson, again, from outside off that sailed all the way over deep backward square leg.

Pravin Tambe's double-strike had forced Daredevils into a rebuilding mode. That didn't mean that the runs entirely stopped coming though; with two quick men - Dinesh Karthik and JP Duminy - runs kept on coming in ones and twos. Karthik showed urgency in one such attempt for a double after Duminy had driven the ball to wide long-on. He was fast on his feet and quick to judge the second and his pace even forced the fielder to fumble the ball. However, he only had to blame himself as the umpire signalled a short run, as Karthik had been well short of the crease on the turn.

One look at M Vijay's celebration after taking Ajinkya Rahane's catch and you immediately knew he had spent a lot of time perfecting that little jig with his former Chennai Super Kings teammate Dwayne Bravo. He turned towards the crowd and showed off his dance moves. The catch - a full-length dive low to his left - was well worthy of it too.