Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel tried to trap Virat Kohli with a premeditated ploy, but the RCB batter read it perfectly.
It was the 14th over of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s innings at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, and Rajasthan Royals were looking for a breakthrough. Virat Kohli, batting on after his fifty, was cruising, and RCB already had a strong base thanks to Kohli’s stand with Devdutt Padikkal. That’s when Riyan Parag returned to the attack, seemingly with a plan in place.
Parag had earlier bowled the 8th over, where he had managed to beat Kohli twice with deliveries outside the off stump — one clocked at 98.1 kph and another over 100 kph — both carrying extra bounce and pace. Kohli attempted to cut but missed both times. The signs seemed promising for Rajasthan Royals.
When Parag came back in the 14th, wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel and Parag looked to have discussed a specific plan. Jurel appeared to make a weird hand gesture behind his back just as Riyan was into his delivery stride.
Made with his left hand (possibly to keep it out of Kohli’s peripheral vision), Jurel seemed to point with his thumb to his right side, probably indicating to Riyan to bowl wide perhaps predicting that Kohli might advance down the pitch to negate the extra bounce or pace Riyan was getting with his quickish off breaks outside off. Now Kohli isn’t someone who steps out often against spin these days, but Riyan floated it up well outside his off stump to drag him outside the crease.
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Instead, Kohli stayed rooted in the crease, read that the pace was much slower on the delivery early, and launched it over long-off for an 80-metre six. The moment was capped off with a smile from Kohli directed at Jurel — was it a subtle nod that he might have anticipated the plan? Or was it Kohli expressing his surprise at being able to reach out to that wide a ball and launch it over the fence? We might never know, but it definitely seemed like Jurel and Riyan had a plan.
And it might just have worked too if not for Kohli’s reach and the power he generated to clear the long off fielder, even if it came off the toe end of the bat.
Hand gestures from the catcher to the pitcher is common in baseball, but much rare in cricket. Notably, during the T20 World Cup in 2024, Nicholas Pooran used different gestures to signal to Akeal Hosein to bowl the stock ball or a quickish arm ball. Such signals are also seen during doubles games in Tennis.
In the innings, RCB finished with a commanding total of 205 for 5 in their 20 overs, with Kohli top-scoring with 70 off 42 balls and Padikkal’s quickfire 50 setting the tone early on. Jurel played a top hand in RR’s run chase before Josh Hazlewood bowled an excellent penultimate over to close the game for RCB and set up their first win at home this season.
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