IPL 2024: Catch me if you can, say batters

Bengaluru: Anuj Rawat, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru wicketkeeper, grassed Lucknow Super Giants' Nicholas Pooran when the batter was on two during their IPL match here on Tuesday. Pooran went on to hammer a six-laden 40 (1x4, 5x6) that made a big difference in the outcome. The ball was descending fast from the night sky off a top edge and Rawat spilled the chance as the ball appeared to swerve a bit. It was tough, but not untakeable.

That wasn't the sole reason for RCB'a loss against LSG, but not for nothing do they say "catches win matches." Going by the same logic, dropped catches often result in defeats. 

Ask Punjab Kings' Jonny Bairstow, who fluffed Virat Kohli's edge at lone slip when the batter was yet to open his account. The right-hander went on to hammer a match-winning 49-ball 77.

While it's true that a dropped catch is discussed more when the beneficiary of that largesse goes on to punish the bowling side, the ongoing season has seen an unusually high number of catches being put down, a significant proportion of them being straight-forward offerings. Just to put the problem in perspective, after the first 15 matches in the last edition of IPL, a total of 28 catches had been dropped while the number has gone up to 40 this season after the same number of games. In the 16th match between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday, three more catches went down, with at least two of them eminently catcheable.

During the 2020 and 2021 seasons, catch-conversion rates were poor but that was understandable as players were coming off Covid-forced breaks. Hard hands and lack of practice under lights obviously had an adverse effect. But what can be attributed to the profligacy this season?

"There is no one particular reason for dropping catches," says former India fielding coach R Sridhar, who is also commentating on this IPL in Tamil. "It could just be different people at different positions. Each player in his own journey, different times of their careers... Plus the pressure of IPL, the travelling, balancing their practice like focusing on their primary skills and making time for fielding. It's a challenge. It could be all this and more, but I can't pinpoint any one single reason. But it's very rare to have a match with a 100% catching record, especially in a tournament like this. Also, when a batter goes on to make a big score after being dropped early, it (catching record) looks worse than what it actually is," he offers.

The sheer volume, Sridhar believes, of games is another reason for this anomaly.

"When you have the volume of matches that you have, it's a big challenge. We also have to see what kind of catches are going down. Like in the match between RCB and KKR, (Glenn) Maxwell's catch wasn't an easy one. Rawat's (second) catch was an easy one but it might have swerved in the night sky, it was a top-edge and never comes down straight."

But don't we say, you need to take those half chances at this level of the game?

"Definitely. They can up their game, efforts can be better and results can be better. The respective fielding coaches have to find out the reasons. But with so many matches happening, sustained excellence is a challenge."

Does that mean it will get worse? Hopefully not.