Kamal Ghorui
New Delhi: It was the 16th over in the second innings at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Delhi Capitals fielder Karun Nair cupped his face in shock and then a wry smile appeared. Punjab Kings batter and captain Shreyas Iyer smiled, too. DC spinner Kuldeep Yadav could do nothing but let out a frustrated smile as well.Moments ago, DC spinner Vipraj Nigam was on his haunches a frustrated man. Nair was shaking his head as he rushed forward to retrieve the ball which had gone away from his grasp.
Twice across three balls Karun Nair had stood behind the bowler’s head — at long-off and long-on, respectively, and let two chances go.In the first instance, Iyer, on 28, went for a big hit, played against the turn, and the leading edge went comfortably towards Nair. The 34-year-old took a few steps forward, got his hands underneath but not safe enough.Two balls later, Shreyas, on 35 now, miscued a Kuldeep Yadav delivery, saw the ball headed towards Nair, the Karnataka player getting underneath it, only for it to hit the ground.Making things worse, possibly, was the fact that just five deliveries ago, substitute Nair had been a safe pair of hands at long-off, much closer to the boundary rope, and sent Nehal Wadhera back on 25.Iyer went on to remain unbeaten on 71 runs from 36 balls on the back of three fours and seven sixes. That is 43 runs more than when he was dropped in the first instance by Karun and 36 runs later than the second.DC captain Axar Patel’s frustration was evident in the post-match presentation. “We’re making the same mistakes repeatedly. If you don’t support the bowlers on such a wicket, I think you deserve to lose,” he said as PBKS reached 265 runs with seven balls to spare for the highest successful chase in IPL history, breaking their own record in the process.Karun Nair was not the only player to have a disastrous day in the field. Shashank Singh has been a fielding liability for Punjab this season. He let go of three catches against the Lucknow Super Giants and added one more to that unfortunate tally. Like Karun, the batter – KL Rahul in this case – capitalised.The reactions were similar to what would unfold later in the day at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Anxiety of seeing the ball head towards the fielder on one side coupled with excitement of an on-coming ball and an impending wicket.KL Rahul pulled a short Arshdeep Singh delivery towards Shashank. A flat-ish shot, comfortable height for Shashank at square leg boundary. A reverse cup, however, went horribly wrong and the facial expressions changed immediately. Arshdeep’s celebrations and finger wagging turned to surprise. Head-in-the-hands of the Delhi Capitals supporter switched to dance. KL Rahul, meanwhile, looked skywards in prayer.The prayers were needed once again in the 10th over. Vijay Kumar Vyshak came in for his second over, KL Rahul had just ticked past the 50-run mark. The outside off delivery was chipped back in a hurry, Vyshak got down a touch on his follow through but failed to hold on as the ball hit his shin and rolled away to safety.KL Rahul went on to score an unbeaten 152 runs from 67 balls with 16 boundaries and nine sixes. He now holds the record for the highest individual score by an Indian in the IPL and third highest overall – behind Chris Gayle (175*) and Brendon McCullum (158*).Again, here’s the math for you. The 34-year-old scored 140 runs more than when he was dropped in the first instance by Shashank and 101 runs after the second instance with Vyshak.Much will, rightly, be made of PBKS’ massive chase heralded by the ‘sarpanch’, their never-say-die approach and the sheer madness of a team scoring 264 runs and still losing. But 529 runs, 49 boundaries and 33 sixes later, it was the four dropped catches that made the big difference.
