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‘Bails kaise gire?’: Virat Kohli shocked as Sunil Narine given not out despite hitting the stumps in KKR vs RCB match
Virat Kohli spotted that the bails were off their groove. "Bails kaise gire?, he asked RCB keeper Jitesh Sharma. Sunil Narine was given not out.
What's an IPL match without some drama? The IPL 2025 opener between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru provided a dazzling start to the 18th season of the tournament. RCB new ball bowlers restricted KKR to 9/1 in the first three overs but then Ajinkya Rahane and Sunil Narine launched a marvellous counterattack, scoring 51 runs in the next three overs to end the powerplay at 60/1. But an interesting moment in the match came in the 7th over.
In the fourth ball of the over bowled by Rasikh Salam Dar, Sunil Narine was beaten by the excessive bounce of the ball. The square-leg umpire thought it was too high and signalled a wide. The RCB players were deliberating whether to use a DRS for the wide call on height—remember, due to the new playing conditions, hawk-eye can be used to check wide calls on height.
Virat Kohli spotted that the bails were off their groove. "Bails kaise gire? (How did the bails fall?), he asked wicket-keeper Jitesh Sharma, who replied by saying, "Pata nahi. Mera dhyan nahi thha, ball dekh raha tha (I don't know, I was looking at the ball)."
RCB captain Rajat Patidar was seen with a muted appeal but the umpires shook their head. Replays showed that Narine's bat touch the stumps and caused the bails to fall. The question now is, why didn't the umpire give Narine out hit wicket?
It was possibly because the umpire had already signalled wide before Narine's bat touched the stumps, and therefore, the ball became dead.
Sunil Narine contributed 44 off 26 in a 103-run third-wicket partnership off 55 balls to lay a solid platform scoring at 10 plus an over. In the process, he also completed 100 sixes in the IPL.
Rahane who last played a T20I for India in 2016 and replaced Shreyas Iyer at the helm, played a fearless knock of 56 off 31 balls. But Rahane and Narine's efforts were undone by left-arm spinner Krunal's brilliant 3/29 in the middle overs where he dismissed a well-set Rahane, and the two KKR heavyweights duo of Venkatesh Iyer (6) and Rinku Singh (12) in successive overs.
The inability of KKR’s lower middle order -- featuring their most expensive INR 23.75 crore signing Iyer, Rinku Singh, and Russell—to fire cost them dearly as they managed just 23 runs and lost two wickets in the last four overs.
Josh Hazlewood, who started brilliantly with the new ball, finished with a tidy 2/22.
