Dropped catches, dropped matches: How the importance of fielding has been re-established in IPL 2018

The small yet rich history of T20 is filled with the lore of balls disappearing out of the park, yorkers shattering stumps and slower deliveries hoodwinking mighty batsmen into playing false shots. Fielding often takes the back seat when it comes to T20s as every bowler is supposed to be hit the distance, or so you would think.

But if IPL 2018 has shown us something, it is the fact that catches still win matches and more often than not can actually become the winning factor. If you are not convinced, ask RCB, DD or CSK. All of these teams have had the misfortune of dropping sitters that went on to haunt them later in the match.

Unfortunately, RCB seems to be at the receiving end of the fielding mishaps more than any other team this IPL. Murugan Ashwin dropped Chris Lynn's easy catch against KKR and Lynn went on to win the match for the Kolkata side.

Parthiv Patel and Chahal dropped Bravo in the tightly contested battle against CSK and those batsmen went on the finish the game for CSK.

The other teams, even the ones at the top, are not doing too hot either. CSK's Ravindra Jadeja dropped Sunil Narine twice, off two balls! Yusuf Pathan got dropped for 0 at deep backward square leg by Vijay Shankar and he went on to win the match for SRH against DD.

Apart from these glaring misses, there have been too many occasions where lacklustre fielding and poor throwing resulted in boundaries and extra runs. In such a tightly contested league where matches often go down to the wire, even a single instance of poor fielding could mean the match.

Funnily enough, Yusuf was at the other end of the spectrum against RCB when he pulled off a one-handed stunner to get rid of Virat Kohli who was going great guns. One could argue that's where RCB's chase got derailed as they plummeted to yet another defeat.

The same match saw SRH captain Kane Williamson let an edge from Virat go through his hands at the slip. Who knows how the game may have panned out had Yusuf not clung on to his chance.

While the tournament has also produced some sensational catches, stumpings and run-outs, the overall fielding standard has been somewhat poor. At least one or two chances have gone begging every match and what more, it is the best fielders who are grassing the ball.

Ravindra Jadeja, who can perhaps walk into any team solely because of his fielding, has dropped sitters. Behind the wicket, Quinton de Kock, Dinesh Karthik, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan and even MS Dhoni have dropped catches and missed stumpings at crucial junctures in matches. No telling if it is pressure, some issues with playing.

conditions or plain bad luck, there have been many matches this IPL where the result could have been completely different had all fielders clung on to the chances.

While SRH has looked the most composed in the field, RCB and MI have been plagued by some horrid fielding lapses. Hence it comes as no surprise that SRH is sitting pretty at the top while RCB and MI languish at the bottom half of the table.

There are still many more matches to come and we expect to see some mind-boggling cricket from the best players around the world. But it is painful to see a team lose the battle just because of a missed sitter. We all hope that in coming matches, the fielding will match the might of batting and bowling and stamp its authority on the game of cricket.