IPL 2021: Chris Gayle's diving attempt leaves Andre Russell in splits

The Kolkata Knight Riders broke their grim, four-match losing streak courtesy of a sensational performance by the bowlers, who struck in tandem and reduced the Punjab Kings to a meager 123/9 at Ahmedabad. Punjab got off to a sedate start with pacers Pat Cummins and Shivam Mavi making early inroads.

Having tightened the screws from the onset, KKR completely crushed their rivals in the middle phase, with the spin twins Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy producing combined figures of 3/46 from eight overs. A short cameo from Chris Jordan (18-ball 30) that included three sixes ensured that his team at least posted a respectable score, although a run-a-ball chase was never going to challenge the Knight Riders too much.

Having said that, the Kings made things tricky after striking early, reducing the opponents to 17/3 inside the powerplay before a 66-run stand between skipper Eoin Morgan and Rahul Tripathi steadied the team and ensured to keep them in the game. Even as Tripathi was dismissed for a well-made 41, Morgan stuck around and remained unbeaten on 47 off 40 to take his team towards the win. The bottom-placed KKR jumped three spots and now occupy the fifth spot in the table.

A diving Chris Gayle leaves Andre Russell in splits 

While a victory after four games was a reason enough for the Kolkata Knight Riders to laugh and rejoice, there was something else that left Andre Russell and a few others in splits when the game was tensely poised.

In the eighth over of the game, Chris Jordan bowled a fuller delivery to Rahul Tripathi, who flicked it, with the angle that it came in, towards midwicket. Fielding there was the 41-year-old Chris Gayle, who dived to stop the ball and saved what could have been a boundary.

His effort and dedication, though worthy of applause, seemed funny to his Caribbean counterpart Andre Russell, who was unable to control his laughter witnessing the old chap putting in the dive. Notably, Gayle had put a similar effort when he even had a shy at the stumps and gave Tripathi a heart attack. Although, he was found to have made his ground during the replays.

Despite being double the age of some of the other players around him, Gayle showed that he still takes his fielding just as seriously as anyone. Meanwhile, Punjab kings went onto lose the game by 5 wickets as KKR chased the target with 20 balls to spare.

Gayle diving like Jonty Rhodes and see the epic reaction of Russell 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/FjdbzGJ4ts

— msc media (@mscmedia2) April 27, 2021