The alert Maxwell and the enthusiastic Mohit

Glenn Maxwell lurked at point, and his quick thinking might have left Kolkata Knight Riders one down in the first over. An open-faced dab from Gautam Gambhir was set to bring an easy single - there was no power in the stroke and his partner Robin Uthappa had responded early. Except Maxwell sensed a chance. He ran in, chose not to pick the ball up and instead he kicked it at the stumps. He missed the target and Uthappa cruised home, but knowing he would lose time had he collected the ball with his hands exemplified Maxwell's nous in the field. A remark to the broadcast - "didn't realise he was that slow, Robin" - summed up his cheekiness.

Maxwell got his due in the 14th over, following a series of fortunate events. First, the fact that he was moved to cover. Second, a crisp drive from Uthappa picked him out perfectly. Third, Gambhir, perhaps expecting runs simply because of the power in the shot, hared out of his crease. Maxwell twisted to his right and unleashed a flat throw which seemed set to hit the stumps with the Knight Riders captain well short of his ground. Only it was interrupted by a rogue left hand from the bowler Sandeep Sharma. But the deflection was quite minor and the ball still found its target.

It was only three balls since Gambhir was dismissed, but Knight Riders needed to accelerate and the set batsman Uthappa took it on himself to attack Sandeep. Except the swipe to long-on skewed off a leading edge towards long-off where Mohit Sharma was placed. Perhaps that's why he felt he had to go for it, even though David Miller at long-on was already in position under the ball. Mohit ran several yards to his right but never looked comfortable doing so and fluffed the chest-high catch. If he had not intruded, Miller could have had a crack at a simple waist-high chance.

Brad Hogg replaced Sunil Narine in the Knight Riders XI, but it was not a happy return. He conceded 28 runs in two overs, but he could have had a wicket. His second ball of the night - a googly - deceived Miller. The batsman had shuffled across outside off stump, giving a clear view of middle and leg for the left-arm wristspinner to aim at. Miller tried to catch up to it with a flick, but he could not and the ball struck the zing bail on top of middle and leg stump. However, it wouldn't be dislodged, nor would it even light up.