Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra showered praise on Rajasthan Royals wicket-keeper Dhruv Jurel for his stunning stumping against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Sunday. While keeping for Ravi Bishnoi, Jurel dived to his left to grab the wide ball down the leg-side and then hit the bullseye to complete stumping of KKR all-rounder Cameron Green.
Chopra rated Jurel’s acrobatic effort to get rid of the Australian all-rounder as one of the most memorable moments of Sunday’s game. The renowned commentator rated Jurel’s stumping as the best ever in the IPL history.
“The biggest highlight of this match for me was that two fielding incidents will be remembered for a very long time. RR will remember them for a very long time. We probably saw the best stumping in 19 years. You don’t get to see a better stumping than that,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“Ravi Bishnoi was bowling, the batter stepped out, the ball was very far down the leg side, he grabbed it from there, and hit the stumps one-handed from there. I mean, Wow, Dhruv Jurel, outstanding. You get to see such a fielding effort or stumping once in a lifetime. It was extraordinary,” he added.
On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals fast bowler Nandre Burger dropped Rinku Singh’s catch when the left-hander was on eight. Singh went on to score an unbeaten knock of 53 runs off 34 balls in the run-chase of 160 and thus the drop catch proved costly.
“A catch went to Nandre Burger. It came and went out. You don’t see such an easy catch being dropped. The stumping Dhruv Jurel did brought Rajasthan into the game immediately, because then they kept KKR in check by bowling 12 overs of spin. Yash Raj Punja, Ravi Bishnoi, and Ravindra Jadeja were there, and Riyan Parag also bowled an over in between because there was help for spin,” he said.
“However, it was Rinku’s catch. What happened in the end? Rinku and Anukul finished the match. So I think that was the overarching theme there, in which one fielding effort will always be remembered for its brilliance, and another fielding effort will also be remembered for a very long time, and also if it hurts them (from a qualification perspective),” Chopra observed.
