BAT & BALL, NARINE DOES IT ALL

KKR Allrounder Sinks RCB, Ends Kohli’s Dream Of Winning IPL As Captain

- Archiman Bhaduri

This IPL is reviving old memories. A day after Ma-hendra Singh Dhoni the finisher once again cameto the fore, it was vintage Sunil Narine who led from the front to help Kolkata Knight Riders beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by four wickets in the Eliminator in Sharjah on Monday. KKR will now play Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 2 on Wednesday.

The West Indian’s all-round show, however, ended Virat Kohli’s dream of winning the IPL as a skipper as he has decided to step down after this edition.

Coming into the attack in the 10th over of the RCB innings after Kohli won the toss and elected to bat first, he not only put the break on the run-rate, but also picked up awicket in each of his four overs.

He later played the role of a pinch-hitter to perfection, smashing three sixes off Daniel Christian’s first over to collect 22 runs to tilt the match in KKR’s favour.

It was heartbreak for RCB’s Harshal Patel who could have ended as IPL’s highest wicket-taker in a season, had Devdutt Padikkal not grounded a skier off Narine. The pacer ended with 32 wickets to tie with Dwayne Bravo, who bagged the same number of wickets in 2013. KKR’s decision not to risk their star allrounder Andre Russell was vindicated as the KKR’s spinning trio of Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy and Shakib Al Hasan choked the opposition.