IPL 2018: Ravindra Jadeja's non-celebration hogs attention in CSK-RCB; Glenn Maxwell's nightmares continue in SRH's win

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) once again prevailed over Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in a low-scoring encounter at Chennai’s adopted home, Pune. Buoyed by another MS Dhoni attack, CSK squashed any hopes that Royal Challengers Bangalore had thanks to their slower bowlers after the batsmen had struggled to put up a decent score on board. They beat RCB by six wickets to retain their position at the top of the points table. At Hyderabad, a humdinger between Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Delhi Daredevils (DD) ended with the hosts chasing down a 150+ total at a ground where low scores are the norm. Take a look at some of the key moments from both matches on Saturday. ‘Fielder’ Jadeja won’t celebrate his wickets Used as a fielder for the majority of the season, Ravindra Jadeja was brought into the attack immediately after the powerplay overs by Dhoni and he rewarded his captain with the gigantic scalp of Virat Kohli off a slider bowled at 100.7 kmph. However, more than the drama of Kohli’s wicket, it was Jadeja’s shock at dismissing the RCB skipper and non-celebration that evoked amusement. The left-arm spinner seemed more befuddled than Kohli after dismissing him and had a weird expression on his face after him cleaning up. “Actually, it was my first ball, so I was not ready for celebration,” Jadeja later commented on his queer reaction to the wicket.

However, the non-celebration continued right through the game with his return catch to dismiss Parthiv Patel almost going unnoticed. Yet again, Jadeja chose not to celebrate and didn’t even throw the ball up in the air, a cliché when celebrating catches. He finished his best spell of this season, giving away just 18 in four overs for three wickets. Southee does the boundary juggle act to perfection, RCB drop the game When Suresh Raina was persistently bounced with a deep square leg and fine leg in place, RCB would not have expected him to flat bat a pull to long on. However, Tim Southee was ready for it —he kept his eyes on the ball while watching the rope behind him and pulled off a screamer. The Kiwi parried the ball into the field of play just before making a step to the outside, jumped back in seamlessly and completed a wonderful catch. Unlike Southee, Parthiv and Yuzvendra Chahal weren’t alert enough to the chances and let the game slip in the final few overs. Parthiv let Dwyane Bravo off the hook when CSK were struggling a touch to get going after a couple of wickets. Then, Murugan Ashwin was left frustrated as in the very next over Bravo tonked him inside out to sweeper cover where Chahal dropped another regulation catch. [caption id=“attachment_4457751” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Chennai Super Kings’ Dwayne Bravo and MS Dhoni fist bump during the match against Royal Challengers Banglore. Sportzpics [/caption] The two drops cost RCB dear as they had managed to peg back CSK a bit with the wickets of Raina, Ambati Rayudu and Dhruv Shorey. However, Bravo and Dhoni used these lifelines to hurt RCB with some brisk scoring post the dropped catches. Maxwell can’t put a foot right It seems like everything Glenn Maxwell is trying, is falling apart these days. Once a Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the IPL, Maxwell’s honeymoon period in the league is over as teams have found a way of getting around him and his array of slog sweeps (or reverse sweeps). All these, though, had nothing to do with Delhi’s cheeky planning that came apart in the very second over of the innings. Ricky Ponting might have watched a few clippings of Maxwell thwarting Sri Lanka’s spinners in a T20 for Australia in Lanka and decided to unleash him at the top alongside a destructive Prithvi Shaw. The decision was perhaps also spurred by the fact that the Hyderabad surface is best for batting in the powerplays when the ball comes on to the bat. However, all of this came down to one quirky moment when Sandeep Sharma got a hand to one of Shaw’s stunning straight drives. Sachin Tendulkar would have been extremely proud of Shaw’s drive, if not for the fact that it found Sandeep’s hands and the stumps, all with Maxwell wandering outside the crease. [caption id=“attachment_4457753” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Umpire Bruce Oxenford ask for a third umpire review for a run-out of Glenn Maxwell in Delhi Daredevils’ match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Sportzpics[/caption] With another single digit score — his third of the season — Maxwell can officially say that nothing in the world is going right for him now. Things turned worse for the Aussie when he dropped Alex Hales on nine and the England opener went on to make a valuable 45. A tale of not backing up and a wild throw In the CSK-RCB encounter at Pune, Bangalore’s first innings had come apart. But just when Southee was doing a bit of work to get to a respectable total, Mohammad Siraj almost spoiled it by going for a non-existent single after Southee inside edged the ball to fine leg. Siraj pulled his groin while turning back too quickly and would have been run-out by quite some distance if only Lungi Ngidi had contained his excitement and lobbed a throw to Bravo, the bowler. However, the South African’s wild throw went way over the head of the bowler and Siraj had time to turn back, fall down, get up and complete going back to the non-striker’s crease. Later, a few miles away from Pune in Hyderabad, the mix-up was caused by the bowler, Siddharth Kaul, who had enough time to collect a decent throw from his skipper to run-out Dan Christian. Kane Williamson’s throw seemed to be heading towards the stumps but Kaul was ball watching and forgot to back up. The ball didn’t hit the stumps and Christian, who had almost given up hopes, easily made his ground while Williamson watched in shock. When Yadav did a Yadav and Mishra did a Mishra Umesh Yadav and Amit Mishra, two bowlers once critical to the national team but now sidelined, made their presence felt in different stats on Saturday. Yadav produced a crackerjacker of a yorker to make a mess of Shane Watson’s stumps, while Mishra used his guile and flight to completely bamboozle Hales and hit timber. Yadav’s pace, which is the biggest weapon that he possesses, helped him get his India cap in the first place. On Saturday, he reminded everyone of how scorching he can get when he cranks it up by beating the in-form Watson for pace with a searing yorker and disturbing his woodwork. Mishra thrives on his primary strength of flighting the ball and extracting turn from the surface. He put that to excellent use at Hyderabad on a sluggish surface and beat Hales all ends up with a brilliant delivery that turned from leg-stump and hit the top of off.