Mumbai Indians won’t blame Deepak Chahar for his catching faux pas against Kolkata Knight Riders

Chahar, running from deep fine leg, was in a great position to take a Rovman Powell catch in the 10th over, but the ball landed between him and Robin Minz, with the India fast bowler mainly appearing to be at fault.

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Then later in the match, in the 18th over, Tejasvi Singh Dahiya‘s catch opportunity was again not handled well by Chahar, running in from deep fine leg. Good on South African wicketkeeper Ryan Rickelton, though, who completed the catch running to his left or there would have been another embarrassment. However, there could have been a serious injury to both of them as they came into bodily contact with each other. Chahar again appeared at fault for not calling properly.

It was a low-scoring contest, and had Chahar taken the Powell catch, Mumbai Indians, who were defending 147/8, would have done better in the match. Who knows, they might have even won the contest?

Mhambrey, however, refused to blame his new-ball bowler. “No one does it on purpose. You drop catches. It just happens, part of the game. Not something that we’re going to dwell too much on, honestly. Yes, if you look at it in hindsight and say, ‘okay, fine, that catch [Powell] at that stage would have been 15, 20 runs extra’, yeah.

“But I’m not going to blame anyone out here. If you look at Corbin Bosch, he took a brilliant catch [to send back Powell off Allah Ghazanfar]. So you compensate for that, right?”

Mhambrey, who deals largely in bowling matters, explained how the desire to make a difference at any point in a game can often lead to mistakes. According to him, that’s what would have happened in the lead-up to Chahar’s second blunder in the 18th over.

“There are too many things happening. Look at Deepak or anybody, I’m just saying you think about the game, right? You think about how I can make a difference in maybe one over that’s left. So you constantly think about contributing, and that can happen. You know, it’s not the first time that has happened, and I’m sure it’s going to happen again. I would not blame, put Deepak under the train out here, definitely not,” he said.

“You need to find a way to win. It’s a home game for us. So we know the surface as well. But yeah, that’s nothing beyond that for us. And yeah, it’s an afternoon game. So it’s completely different for both the teams,” Mhambrey said.