Rajat bosses over Krunal
The other day Glenn Maxwell had talked about how Rajat Patidar and he had the roles to go after spinners in the RCB team “more than others”. A fan of Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli. Rajat’s formative years had been spent playing spinners on on rough dry pitches which he credits with his comfort against spin. Couple of weeks he had smashed a 102-m six against the spin that had landed and injured the head of a spectator in the stands. Today, luckily, no such incident occurred and all the injury was borne by the bowler Krunal Pandya who haemorrhaged 20 runs in the sixth over as Patidar smashed three fours and a six. The first two were heaved over mid-on, not quite timed but enough to get it up and over. Krunal pushed the mid-off fielder back and Patidar walloped the next ball over long-off. With three length balls disappearing, Krunal inevitably shortened the length and was cut to the point boundary. Patidar had started as a bowler and focussed on his batting after his U-15 days. A few years later, he revamped his batting under the guidance of Amay Khurasia and has gone from strength to strength. -Sriram Veera
Collision course
Mahipal Lomror slid in near the boundary rope to abort a gorgeously- timed flick essayed by KL Rahul. But just when he shoved the ball with his palms, Harshal Patel, skidding through the grass, crashed onto him and the ball rebounded off Patel’s body. Patel too, was in a desperate pursuit to stop the ball from reaching the ropes. But he hadn’t spotted Lomror’s sprint, and instead hurt his right shoulder,in the impact of the collision. The chain of comedy didn’t end there, Lomror sprawled back to his feet and just about prevented the ball from brushing the ropes. But as he picked up the ball, it slipped out of his, but just beforeit trickled to the boundary, he gathered it again, before the ball tumbled out of his (sweaty/greasy) palms again. Finally, in his fourth attempt, he managed to collect the ball cleanly and fire in a flat throw at the bowler’s end. And for all the clumsiness, he saved a single too.– Sandip G
A bull in a China shop
From the moment he strode out to the ground, Glenn Maxwell was restless, like the proverbial cat on a hot tin roof. Maybe it was the dot-ball pressure applied by Virat Kohli’s crawl-athon (by T20 standards), maybe it was Maxwell’s own desperation to influence a big game. But whichever emotion or motive tugged beneath his impulses and choices, Maxwell looked wretched. Just the second ball he faced, off Ravi Bishnoi, he looked to switch hit and failed. The next ball, he tried to cut with all his power, but he couldn’t. The fourth ball, he tried an expansive drive, but was beaten again. The fifth ball, he bludgeoned down the ground, before he tapped a single off the last ball. Restlessness banished, you would expect him to settle in. Not quite, two balls later, he attempted to swipe Krunal Pandya and ended up in the outstretched palms of Evin Lewis. The ball was neither too short for the shot nor was his connection sweet enough to sail over the ropes. At the end, he resembled more like a bull in a china shop.– Sandip G
Faf falls
It was a simple catch offered by Quinton de Kock at but Faf du Plessis took the dolly as he ran to his left at mid-on and fell down to the ground. Did he stumble? Nope. It’s a theory he has been propagating for a while now. He believes that fall helps break the movement more effectively so that the ball doesn’t snap out of the palms. That’s why du Plessis keeps going down whenever he takes a catch in the outfield, even for regulation skiers.
I have built this ability into my catching style that at point of impact I am super still but almost fall to the ground or dive to the ground because it makes me more stiller! It doesn’t make sense how are you still when you are diving but for me my head is dead still; my body might be moving but my head is super still,” he told T20Stars podcast.
“90% percent of the catches I take you will see me, if possible, falling or diving down. It makes me feel like everything is moving less, than when you are moving your feet and eyes are bouncing down when you are running.” – Sriram Veera
