Eighth wonder: Narine not finishing his quota of four overs

It happened against LSG on Tuesday, a first in nearly two years and eight times since 2012 when KKR have bowled first

Kolkata: Buried in the mayhem of the ball sailing over the boundary here on Tuesday was the fact that Sunil Narine didn’t complete his quota of overs. That does not happen very often. And should not too because Narine, remember, is the first in T20 history to have bowled a maiden Super Over. He did that in the Caribbean Premier League in 2014.

The last time Sunil Narine didn’t finish his four overs when KKR bowled first was against Chennai Super Kings on April 23, 2023. (REUTERS)

Also, because, Narine has an economy rate of 6.75 in IPL. And he has 182 IPL wickets.

In 181 IPL matches Narine has played since Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bought him for $700,000 in 2012, he has not completed his quota of four only eight times when they bowled first. Irrespective of whether they bowled first or second, Narine completed his quota in every match in 2014, 2015, 2021, 2022 and 2024 seasons.

The last time Narine didn’t finish his four overs when KKR bowled first was here, against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on April 23, 2023. And before that it was in 2020, against Delhi Capitals in Sharjah.

Like on Tuesday, when Mitchell Marsh went after him and then Nicolas Pooran, Narine went for 13 in his first over against CSK in 2023. Then, Narine’s tryst with the ball ended after two overs in which he leaked 23 runs. KKR were playing three spinners in that match with Suyash Sharma and Varun Chakravarthy also available. Against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), KKR had gone in with Chakravarthy and Narine, the two bowlers they count on for wickets and stemming the flow of runs especially in the middle overs.

After Chakravarthy came on in the power play and went for three in his first over, Narine was brought on from the Club House End in the innings’ seventh. Typical of Narine, the first ball skidded into Marsh. Indications of how the afternoon would go, after KKR won the toss and opted to field, came in the next ball which Marsh slog swept for six. The next ball was a touch short and Marsh pulled him for four. He had bowled three dot balls but still went for 13 when Marsh ended the over with a lap sweep.

Narine went for nine in his second over, Marsh hitting him for one four through cover, before being taken off as Ajinkya Rahane opted for pace on a track that by then had proved to be a bowlers’ nightmare, one typified by Shardul Thakur’s 11-ball over. He returned to the attack in the 15th after LSG had scored 66 runs in that period losing only Aiden Markram.

Narine had managed to keep the rampaging duo of Pooran and Marsh quiet for the first three deliveries but then got smashed for two sixes. Both came from Pooran, the first on the leg-side and the second, off what proved to be his last ball of the evening, over long-off. In a match KKR lost by four runs chasing 239, that six had come after Narine had bowled a wide.

“Nicolas Pooran was playing well against him,” said KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane when HT asked him why Narine did not finish his quota. “Playing spinners was easy with one boundary being shorter. (Andre) Russell had got one wicket in the previous over, so I thought I would go with him. Today, Sunil was struggling,” he told the official broadcasters.