For most of the captains in the world it’s difficult to explain their team selections in public, but KXIP’s skipper Glenn Maxwell find it pretty easy. One the eve of the match between KXIP and MI, Punjab decided to include Ishant Sharma into the squad and Maxwell said humorously that Ishant’s addition had more to do with his name than the balance of the team.

During the toss, Maxwell said, “We decided we didn’t have enough Sharmas in the team. So we decided to put one more in.” Coincidentally, Maxwell’s said that when another Sharma – Mumbai captain Rohit was standing beside him.

Mumbai also selected leg-spinner Karn Sharma in their squad, bringing the total number of Sharmas in the match to five. In the ongoing season, eight Sharmas are playing; Ankit Sharma (Rising Pune Supergiant) and Bipul Sharma (Sunrisers Hyderabad) have both played a role in the T20 league.  The matter of the fact is that none of the eight Sharmas are any relation with each other.

According to a study in 2014, there were 48 lakhs Sharmas in India, making it the eighth-most common surname in the country. The Sharma-fest in Mumbai brought back memories of a match of the last year’s quadrangular series, India A batsman Karun Nair was dismissed by Australia-born spinner Arjun Nair, who has some roots in India.

But perhaps the most significant scorebook entry of all came during the 1979-80 Ashes when Australia’s Dennis Lillee got out on the bowling of English bowler Graham Dilley and the catch was taken by Peter Willey, resulting in ‘Lillee c Willey b Dilley’.