Three balls of Sunil Narine: It was one of the best IPL performances overall as Narine’s 4 switched to 21 and 15ball 26 and changed the game.
Sunil Narine‘s three batting balls changed the game and brought the Kolkata Knight Riders one step closer to the IPL final.
It was tough though. Royal Challengers Bangalore defended a total of 138 with a fearful spirit.
The score was 80 of 3 in the 12th round. Sharjah’s slowdown was good and adequate. In this tone, a reading of Equation 59 of 51 can be tricky. You can’t leave it too late. Too many variables. So Knight Riders pinch hitter and went 6, 6, (wide), and 6.
Three nostrils changed the game. Twenty-four balls had previously prepared it. The Royal Challengers actually had a solid 53-for-1 power play with 8.8. Then it came and the tracks went dry. Only 60 came out of the next 11 overs. 60 by 4 at 5:45 a.m.
Three balls of Sunil Narine: Sublime
Virat Kohli. Well arched. Villiers AB. Clean Bowled. Glenn Maxwell. Totally deluded. Most people need cheat code and a computer screen to accomplish this. Narine doesn’t. She imposed the logic of video games on this real-world game and changed it in favor of Knight Riders.
The pressure on Kohli grew. He had slowed down after the power play 24 of 16 and 15 of 17 and his desperation was evident. Narine knew that in situations like this, the hitter often forgets the basics and just goes over the line. Even such a good Kohli was prone to this weakness as a simple blast slipped through his defenses.
Taking down the big boys
Making De Villiers required a bit more subtlety. The talisman of the Royal Challengers had devised a plan. It involved pushing the forefoot out from the stump to remove lbw and play on it.
Narine, however, saw the smallest gap between the bat and the pad and aimed at it with rocket precision. Pace, drift, length, and spin came together when De Villiers played around a bud and lost his middle stump.
That left Maxwell alone. And with time rushing by and weirdos closing in, even those invincible shots from him suddenly didn’t seem entirely invincible. Narine put it on top of one on the right in the hands of the short third.
Knight Riders had saved their Mystery Spinner for the Big Three of the Royal Challengers. And it worked very well. Twelve races. Seventeen bullets. And three massive windows.
The fightback
Harshal Patel earned the honor in 2021 and responded by knocking out Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer. Those two wickets brought her season record to 32, an IPL record tied to Dwayne Bravo in 2013.
Yuzvendra Chahal has the honor virtually as long as there are Royal Challengers. He created the drama DRS.
Dan Christian has had the honor in various T20 leagues around the world. On this basis, he joined the Australian World Cup team at the age of 38. But here he missed the kingdoms of him. Narine hit a short ball that wasn’t high enough to start her innings. He then threw a long ball to the stump on the midwicket. And to top it off, he ordered the Long-off line with one hand. Just one hand. This reduced the required rate from 6.9 to 4.8.
And although the Royal Challengers continued to fight, Mohammed Siraj took two wickets in game 18 to reopen the game, Eoin Morgan and Shakib Al Hasan used over 600 T20 of experience to finally seal the game.
Click here: From stifled to game-breaker: The chronicles of Sunil Narine
Read more about: Gautam Gambhir says “Passion and energy not enough to win trophies, Virat Kohli was never the best tactician” in the IPL 2021
Visit also: Jukebox for Amitabh Bachchan Birthday: 10 Classic Songs That Will Transport You Back In Time