Varun Chakaravarthy had it covered.

Tilak Varma, on 12 off 22 and struggling to get away against spin, went for the slog-sweep against the wrong 'un and sent a top-edge flying towards mid-on. Varun settled under it, only for Angkrish Raghuvanshi to come running across the length of the pitch and collide into him.

The ball popped out, as you'd expect. "Crazy," Ravi Shastri called it on air.

It took Varun a while to get up, more from the frustration of the moment than any fresh damage. He had a few words with Raghuvanshi before limping back to his mark.

The left foot has been an issue for a while. He had taken a blow on the boot earlier this month and hasn't quite been moving freely since. The limp shows between deliveries, and in the short, quiet practice sessions he has had away from the media glare.

There has been no official confirmation around the extent of the injury. Ajinkya Rahane called him "brave" for playing against Gujarat Titans with a "sore foot" and had earlier referred to it as a "niggle injury" when he missed the RCB game.

After the MI game, Shane Watson spoke about it in a little more detail. Varun, he said, is "all in" despite the pain.

"I'm not exactly sure of where he is on his rehab journey at the moment," the assistant coach said. "All I do know is, obviously, he's playing through a bit of pain at the moment, which just shows how brave he is, how much he wants to be here to be able to contribute for KKR. And he's still bowling beautifully.

"We are so lucky to be able to have someone of Varun's skill and also his desperation to be able to be here, to want to play for KKR. Because with the pain that he's managing, he could have easily just said, 'Look, I don't want to be a part of this. I'm just going to go and rest it'. So we're very fortunate that he's all in."

The collision could have been bad news for Varun and for KKR. They are still hanging on to an outside chance, and he has been playing through the pain with that in mind. The moment left Varun wicketless, but it also kept Tilak at the crease. On this pitch, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing for KKR.

The left-hander faced another 10 balls for 8 runs and finished with 20 off 32 balls. The last time a batter in IPL faced 30+ balls and scored at a lower strike-rate than that was 14 years ago.

24 of the 32 deliveries Tilak faced were against spinners, not his strongest suit. It came in the phase where Varun and Sunil Narine bowled in tandem with catchers around the bat, and on a pitch that "had a little bit of moisture" and "wasn't the easiest to bat on" according to Watson.

MI, who lost four in the Powerplay, never got out of the middle-overs stall and managed only 48 runs between overs 7 to 15. As Paras Mhambrey said later, it wasn't just about boundary-hitting, but about the "ability to read the wicket" and "find ways to get runs" against quality spin, which includes using the feet to access different areas on the field. Tilak couldn't quite do that, and the innings didn't move much with him there.

The next batter in was Will Jacks and he tried something else straightaway, including taking Varun on for the biggest six of the night. It stood out because there hadn't been much like it. On another surface, that might have come earlier. Here, Tilak using up those deliveries without shifting gears had kept KKR ahead in the middle overs.

MI finished with 147/8, which Hardik Pandya later said was "20 runs short."

The collision showed up again in the next innings. Raghuvanshi, who had left the field minutes after the mix-up, had to be subbed out with concussion. "Unfortunately, the collision that he had with Varun meant that he ended up having some neck pain, a bit of dizziness and a bit of a headache within a couple of overs of that as well. So unfortunately, he wasn't able to finish off the game. And I know how desperate he was as well," Watson said.

In his place, Manish Pandey came in at No. 3, promoted up the order. That mattered here. Raghuvanshi's returns against spin this season have been modest, with him averaging 28.6 and scoring at 8 runs per six balls. His strike rate also drops by around 20 points against spin when compared to pace this season. Additionally, in the Powerplay, his strike-rate of 126.5 is among the lowest for top-order batters.

On this sticky surface, among the toughest this edition, getting through it would have been another stretch for someone so young and still finding his feet at this level. It wasn't so much about what Raghuvanshi couldn't do, as it was about what the situation demanded. In that sense, Pandey's 45 off 33 were perfectly paced and executed in these conditions, getting KKR over the line.

The collision and the resulting drop denied Varun a wicket, but not much else. The game had already settled into a tight middle phase, and despite visible pain, he played his part in keeping it that way, ensuring KKR live to see another day in IPL 2026.