Dushmantha Chameera had a forgettable night with the ball for the Delhi Capitals against his former franchise, Kolkata Knight Riders but made amends in the field with a superman effort to take probably one of the catches of the tournament near the deep square leg boundary.
Apart from the spinners, it was a difficult night for the Delhi Capitals bowlers, especially in the powerplay as Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Sunil Narine took them to the cleaners. The KKR openers were especially severe on the Sri Lankan pacer Dushmantha Chameera. Chameera, who has been part of the playing XI for the Capitals for the last three games, ended up conceding 25 runs in an over he bowled in the powerplay.
Chameera came back well in a couple of overs he bowled at the back end, but the damage was already done. However, when he got the chance to redeem himself personally, he did it in the field in the final over of the Kolkata Knight Riders’ innings.
It had already been a bizarre over, which started with Andre Russell muscling a low full toss from Starc for a six before the tall pacer came back to bowl a couple of good balls, with them being reviewed for wides. Starc dismissed Rovman Powell off the next delivery after conceding a bye and bowled a juicy half-volley for Anukul Roy to use the pace and flick it in the air towards the deep square leg boundary. It looked like going for a boundary because of the pace it had in the shot and the fielder on the boundary was a bit squarer.
It was always going away from Chameera, but the Sri Lankan quick continued chasing the ball and flew full-length, dived with both his hands outstretched, and it stuck. Chameera just lay down, and for a second,d the commentators and Starc himself were not sure if he had actually caught it. But he did as Chameera has pulled off something special. The pace it had and the angle at which it was coming on, it would always have been a difficult catch for any field, let alone a tall fast bowler running while keeping track of the boundary and eventually getting his hands to it.
Watch the video here:
From 91/2, 204/9 was a great recovery for the Delhi Capitals with the ball in the last 13 overs or so, however, they still needed to hunt down a target in excess of 205. At 136/3 with seven wickets in hand and run rate in control, it looked like the hosts would seal the deal until a certain someone named Sunil Narine decided to have his say on the game and dismissed three DC batters in a couple of overs and that was game done and a fourth loss for the Delhi side in the last six matches, including three at home.
