Six wickets fell in a space of 47 balls at the Narendra Modi Stadium as the Royal Challengers Bengaluru slipped from 34-0 to 96-6, and Jason Holder was involved in four of those dismissals, all on consecutive occasions. The Gujarat Titans all-rounder dismissed Jitesh Sharma, which remained his sole wicket, while he picked up three catches, one of which was a stunner at deep backward square leg. But the wonderful piece of fielding sparked fury in the RCB camp.
The incident happened in the fourth ball of the eighth over when left-arm seamer Arshad Khan hit a hard length. It wasn’t a pullable length, but RCB captain Rajat Patidar went ahead with the shot and spliced it into the air.
Holder ran across from deep square leg, and so did Kagiso Rabada. But the West Indies star avoided a collision and he grabbed a smart low catch. The TV umpire, Abhijit Bhattacharya, examined it and deemed it out, but Patidar hung around near the boundary.
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The RCB camp was convinced that the ball touched the ground when Holder slid and completed the catch. Virat Kohli, in particular, was shocked by the decision and enraged. He immediately walked up to the reserve umpire, Parashar Joshi, and was seen having an animated discussion. Head coach Andy Flower joined him, and the discussion lasted long after Patidar accepted his fate and walked over the ropes to the dugout.
Commentator Eoin Morgan, however, sided with the TV umpire. “Holder is in full control in my eyes,” he said. Patidar departed for 19 off 15.
That was the first of the four dismissals in which Holder was involved. In the next over, he dismissed Jitesh for just one run as he nicked behind to leave RCB at 80 for 4 in the ninth over. And that turned to 91 for five in the next over when Tim David dragged Rashid to Holder at mid-wicket for 9 off 6. In the next over, Krunal Pandya holed a delivery from Arshad to Holder at mid-wicket for 4 off 4 as RCB slipped further to 96 for six in 10.3 overs.
Earlier in the evening, the Gujarat Titans won the toss and opted to bowl first against the defending champions.
Kohli got RCB off to a flyer after taking down Rabada for five consecutive boundaries in the second over. But the fast bowler had the last laugh as he returned an over later to dismiss Kohli with a shorter delivery. An over before that, RCB had lost their first wicket, with Rashid Khan removing Jacob Bethell.