New Delhi: He has always lived under the shadow of MS Dhoni. However, for once Dinesh Karthik has managed to occupy centre stage replacing the former Indian captain. Dinesh Karthik created a new record Sunday during the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) IPL-2020 game. Karthik went past Dhoni’s record of most number of catches in the IPL and made it his own. Karthik now has 110 catches in IPL, the most by any wicket-keeper in IPL history.
Dhoni had 109 catches under his belt prior to the KKR-RR game. In the match, Karthik took four catches. The most outstanding of the lot was the one-handed effort flying through the air on the leg side to send back the dangerous Ben Stokes. The four catches took his tally to 110 in the IPL and the number can increase if KKR qualify for the playoffs. CSK however, are already out of the ongoing edition of the IPL.
Karthik’s record will take some beating as third in the list is Parthiv Patel with 66 catches. He is followed by Naman Ojha (65) and Robin Uthappa (58).
Later on after the game ended Sunday, the skipper of KKR, Eoin Morgan was all praise for Karthik. “DK’s catch (Ben Stokes) was remarkable. When a guy takes a catch like that, it is completely his wicket, it has nothing to do with the bowling at all. It’s a keeper’s catch, keeper’s wicket,” Morgan told Pat Cummins in a video posted by iplt20.com.
Karthik has not been having a good outing with the bat in the ongoing edition of the IPL. But what he is failing to do with the bat in front of the wicket, he is making up for it with his glovework behind the stumps.