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IPL 2019: Unfair Colin Ingram, Faf du Plessis not being credited for acrobatic effort

A similar instance occured on Sunday when CSK's Faf du Plessis pulled the ball in and relayed it to substitute fielder Dhruv Shorey to dismiss RCB's Marcus Stoinis.

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DC’s Colin Ingram makes an athletic effort to dismiss KXIP’s Chris Gayle
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Scoreboards don't reveal the real picture and are often misleading. A look at the scorebook for IPL Match No. 37 in New Delhi on Saturday will show 'Chris Gayle c Axar Patel b Sandeep Lamichhane 69'.

Those who did not see the real action and just went by the scoreboard would believe that Patel made some effort to catch the big-hitting Jamaican. It is very unfair on Colin Ingram to not credit the South African in the scoreboard for his piece of brilliance in the outfield.

A similar instance occured on Sunday when CSK's Faf du Plessis pulled the ball in and relayed it to substitute fielder Dhruv Shorey to dismiss RCB's Marcus Stoinis. And, unfairly, du Plessis is not credited with the catch but Shorey is.

The fact of the matter in Saturday's incident is that Gayle's sure six off the Nepalese leg-spinner was stopped somewhere in the air at the mid-wicket boundary by an outstretched Ingram above his head. It didn't stop at that. He had to balance himself so that he did not cross the rope with the ball in hand. In his act of balancing, he also had the presence of mind to throw the ball to his Delhi Capitals teammate Patel about 30 feet away.

There again, after Ingram relayed the ball to Patel, the latter did not have to make any effort other than just latch on to it. Patel had to do the bare minimum as Ingram's relay throw was so perfect that it was similar to a basketball player scoring a three-pointer with precision.

In falling over the rope, Ingram got rid of the ball with such precise force that it went straight into the cupped palms of Patel. And, after all the hard work that Ingram did, he does not get any credit in the scoreboard. Patel walks away with it.

The only consolation for Ingram is that at the end of the match, he shared the Rs 1 lakh award for 'Perfect catch of the Match' with the finisher Patel.

Ingram was witness to a similar, extraordinary piece of relay catching in Australia's Big Bash League in January 2018 when as part of Adelaide Strikers, his team-mate Ben Laughlin pulled off as astonishing an effort to stop the ball hit by Melbourne Renegades' Dwayne Bravo from flying over the rope and relaying it to Jake Weatherald, who had to make some diving effort to catch it.

Ingram, perhaps, may not mind not getting any mention for the catch in the scoreboard or in the records book. He told Patel later in a small video interview for iplt20.com that he just wanted to catch the ball.

"I just wanted to catch the ball. Chris (Gayle) has been hitting it 25 rows back. Let me just catch it. Ben Laughlin pulled off a big one last year. That was in my mind when I let the ball go," Ingram told Patel.

It is very unfair on fielders who do all the donkey's work and someone else walks away with the credit just because he completes the catch.

The Ingram-Patel teamwork is not the first time in IPL or in cricket. Such extraordinary pieces of fielding have been seen time and again in IPL and in other tournaments the world over.

Players do get a sense of satisfaction if their effort is recorded in the official scorebook and the records book. A few years down the line, when you look at the scorecard, it would say 'Gayle c Patel b Lamichhane 69' and Ingram's tremendous efforts would have been forgotten by then.

So, how do you record such relay catches in the scorebook? A simple way would be to have 'Gayle c Ingram/Patel b Lamichhane' so that the hard work is also registered.

And, in the records section under the catches column, there can be a way of mentioning it to indicate it as a part of the relay catch.

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