The Great Game Called Cricket...

The one that swung
Irfan Pathan's unending search for the dream inswinger has been one of the enduring themes of Delhi Daredevils' matches this season. Today, he got them to curl in right from ball one, before hitting the stumps with a patent inducker than snuck through, though not exactly through bat and pad. Wary of his movement, Jacques Kallis was consciously looking to get well across and forward to negate the swing, when he ended up going too far across to one in the fifth over. The ball landed on middle stump and began bending in sharply, even as Kallis realised he was in no position to flick. He belatedly tried to glance it off its path, but the ball found a way past and disturbed leg stump.

The ones that spun
The Delhi strip has been the most capricious 22 yards of real estate since the IPL began. It began as a typically sluggish Kotla track with no life in it, before the curator was asked to spice it up. The resultant greentop promptly produced the highest scoring match of the tournament. Today, it was expected to be another batting beauty with little in it for spinners. So much so, that the first sighting of a spinner was only in the 26th over of the game. And what an over it was. Iqbal Abdulla trotted in and landed it on a length outside off, it whirled out of the grassy track and bounced big on James Hopes who missed it by a foot and looked on as if he'd encountered a ghost. Later in the over, Abdulla repeated the dose to Virender Sehwag, who wisely chose to let the ball go through after thinking of guiding it with the spin. On both occasions, wicketkeeper Shreevats Goswami did not get even close to collecting it. He looked confused after jumping around in a vain attempt to pouch it the second time, while Sehwag sported a bemused half-smile.

Pathan v Pathan
From the moment Irfan started bowling, people were looking forward to Yusuf walking out and having a go at him. By the time Yusuf came to the crease, Irfan had completed his first spell. While Yusuf played himself in in the middle overs, it seemed inevitable that he would run into Irfan at the death. Until he smeared a short ball from Umesh Yadav straight to long-on, where who else but Irfan would complete the catch. Irfan promptly came on to bowl the next over. The possibility of the brothers coming face-to-face in the chase perked up when Irfan got an unusual promotion up to No. 4. Irfan was at the crease for four overs, but none of those were bowled by his brother. Irfan perished in the 11th over, slogging Abdulla straight to deep midwicket. No prizes for guessing who bowled the 12th over.

The NBA moment
Fielding standards in the IPL have been increasing with every passing game, and today's headlining performance came from Brett Lee. Delhi needed 26 off 12 balls when Lee came on to bowl the 19th over. Venugopal Rao missed the second ball, but tried to sneak a bye. Lee realised what was happening, aborted his follow-through, and back-pedalled rapidly towards the stumps at the non-striker's, always a step ahead of the scrambling Rao. Goswami collected the ball and lobbed it high to Lee who leapt up to collect it overhead, even as he turned around mid-air and slam-dunked the ball onto the stumps to catch Rao well short. Kobe Bryant would have approved of the classic lay-out.

Omni-present Kallis
If Lee captured the imagination with one act of brilliance, Jacques Kallis impressed with the single-minded ruthlessness with which he manned the short square boundaries in the end overs. In the 16th over, Rao looked to force Lee through the off side and the ball was speeding away towards the rope when a horizontal Kallis kept it in play. In the next over, Yogesh Nagar whipped Jaidev Unadkat powerfully and it was hurtling inevitably to the midwicket boundary when Kallis intercepted again. With the asking-rate mounting, Rao cracked L Balaji in the 18th over through point, and the ball was almost there when Kallis dived into its path. He had taken complete ownership of the sweeper position and wasn't going to let anything through today.

Agarkar's fortunes
The man with more comebacks than most in Indian cricket came on to bowl the seventh over of the game. In his only previous game this season, he had started off in ominous fashion by conceding four fours off his first four balls. More generosity was expected when he ran in and landed his first ball full and wide outside off. Goswami looked to steer, and got a thin edge behind. Luck was not on Agarkar's side when he came out to bat though, as he ran himself out for a duck before he had even faced a ball. Just the kind of extremes you expect from a man with a Test hundred at Lord's as well as seven successive Test ducks against Australia.