West Indian Narine lives up to his all-rounder tag with 4-21 and 15-ball 26 effort to help Kolkata Knight Riders beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by four wickets and set up second Qualifier clash against Delhi Capitals
KKR’s Sunil Narine appeals for an RCB wicket during the Eliminator at Sharjah yesterday. Pic/BCCI, IPL
Sunil Narine gave glimpses of his ‘old mystery’ with the ball and then topped it up with three monster sixes as Kolkata Knight Riders’ four-wicket victory in an exciting Eliminator dashed Virat Kohli’s dream of winning an IPL trophy while leading Royal Challengers Bangalore.
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KKR will now meet Delhi Capitals in the second Qualifier on Tuesday to decide Chennai Super Kings’ rivals for the title clash on October 15. Narine, who had to remodel his action after coming under the scanner due to a suspect action multiple times, singlehandedly “eliminated” Royal Challengers Bangalore with bowling figures of 4 for 21.
Kohli’s contentious call
He then produced a crucial 26-run knock off 15 balls that made a tricky chase of 139 slightly easier in the end. KKR got home with two balls to spare. Kohli, who was captaining RCB for the last time, did make a contentious decision by opting to bat on a sluggish surface, which also offered turn.
Narine (4-21) sent RCB’s biggest guns back in the dugout as Kohli, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell had no answer to his turning deliveries under pressure situation.
With Varun Chakravarthy (0-20) not conceding a single boundary and Shakib Al Hasan (0-24 in) also keeping the batsmen on a tight leash, the KKR’s spin troika gave away only 65 runs with four boundaries in 12 overs.
Defending a low score was never easy but save Harshal Patel’s all-time highest-wicket tally (in a single edition) of 32, RCB had nothing to write home about as another season that started with a bang ended in a whimper.
Once again, captain Kohli’s inability to win pressure matches and big-ticket tournaments was proved by KKR’s spinners, who were successful in tying the batters in knots. Not to forget the skipper not being at his best during middle overs in any of the games.
KKR’s chase could have been a bit dicey but Narine just chanced his arms in the 12th over to muscle
Dan Cristian for three sixes, which proved to be decisive in the end. However, the evening did start well for RCB when Devdutt Padikkal (21 off 18 balls) and Kohli (39 off 33 balls) got off to a great start by adding 49 runs in the first five Powerplay overs.
The opening duo attacked an under-pressure Shivam Mavi with as many as five boundaries coming in those first few overs. However, it was Lockie Ferguson (2-30), whose extra pace did Padikkal in as the left-hander, trying to cut, dragged a delivery, pitched well outside off-stump.
Bharat troubled
RCB’s last league match hero Kona Bharat (9 off 15 balls) was troubled with the slowness of the track.
He was Narine’s first of the four victims when he tried to loft the spinner over long-off but didn’t reach to the pitch of the delivery and holed out in the deep by Venkatesh Iyer.
Kohli, who has had good starts in most games but lost the momentum post Powerplay overs with the field spread, once again went into a shell. The shot that got him out had desperation writ large over it as the slog sweep to a fuller delivery from Narine was never on.
Brief scores
RCB 138-7 (V Kohli 39, D Padikkal 21; S Narine 4-21, L Ferguson 2-30) lost to KKR 139-6 in 19.4 overs (S Gill 29, S Narine 26; H Patel 2-19, M Siraj 2-19, Y Chahal 2-16) by four wickets
RCB’s Hasaranga and Chameera join Sri Lankan team
Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday released Sri Lankan duo of all-rounders Wanindu Hasaranga and Dushmantha Chameera from the team’s bio-bubble. Both Hasaranga and Chameera are on their way to join their national squad ahead of its Round 1 matches in the T20 World Cup, starting from October 17. Hasaranga and Chameera were roped in as replacement players in place of Australian duo Adam Zampa and Daniel Sams.
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