IPL 2021, Eliminator: Sunil Narine's four-wicket haul helps KKR restrict RCB to 138

Sunil Narine made his presence felt for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), in an extremely crucial encounter against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Monday. The two teams were battling it out in the Eliminator of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, when the West Indian grabbed the limelight with his superb performance. Narine accounted for a four-wicket haul, recording the dismissals of Virat Kohli, KS Bharat, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers. The spinner was further economical as well, conceding just 21 runs. Narine’s heroics helped the Kolkata-based franchise restrict RCB to a total of 138 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs. The West Indies based cricketer certainly enjoyed assistance from Lockie Ferguson, who chipped in with two dismissals as well.

“Today it came out pretty well, I delivered the performance I had, sometimes they (other spinners) do. I think bowling in tandem with quality spinners makes it easier. Today there was more grip than the last game, so the spinners did a good job. We’ll take 138 on any day, now we need to back our batters to get it. Need to look at the first 6 overs first and take it further,” said Narine as quoted by Cricbuzz.

Kohli was the top run-getter for the Bangalore-based franchise, accumulating 39 runs off 33 deliveries in an innings comprising of five boundaries. None of the other batsmen barring fellow opener Devdutt Padikkal who scored 21 runs from 18 balls managed to leave much of an impact.

Kohli wins toss, opts to bat as Andre Russell misses out yet again

Kohli won the toss and opted to bat, after winning the toss in the Eliminator. The RCB skipper has gone in with an unchanged lineup for the encounter, which was definitely expected considering the thrilling win against Delhi Capitals (DC) in the Bangalore-based franchise’s last league encounter. KKR have also not made any changes, which is a bit surprising considering the absence of Andre Russell who can be a game-changer on his day.

Kohli stated that his decision to bat was influenced by the great wicket.

“We are going to bat first, looks like a great wicket, nice and hard. It gets tougher to bat here in Sharjah as the game progresses. No changes. A youngster steps up and wins you a game against a top side like Delhi. Very happy for KS. This is what this tournament is all about. Meetings have been pretty short and sharp. We have the ability to win games, nothing changes this being an Eliminator,” he said as quoted by Cricbuzz.

“Would have loved to bowl first”

Morgan expressed his happiness after being asked to bowl.

“We would have loved to bowl first anyways. The toss doesn’t bother us. We are feeling confident within the group, we are starting to come good as a team. We are playing with the same team,” he stated.

Lineups:

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakaravarthy

Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli(c), Devdutt Padikkal, Srikar Bharat(w), Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Daniel Christian, Shahbaz Ahmed, George Garton, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal.