IPL Eliminator: Sunil Narine takes four as KKR pegs RCB back to 138/7
Sharjah, Oct 11: West Indies spinner Sunil Narine showed glimpses of his vintage past with a magical four-wicket haul as Kolkata Knight Riders restricted Royal Challengers Bangalore to a sub-par 138 for seven in the IPL Eliminator, here on Monday.
Narine (4/21) sent RCB's big guns back in the dug-out as Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell had no answer to his turning deliveries under pressure situation.
With Varun Chakravarthy (0/20) not conceding a single boundary and Shakib Al Hasan (0/24 in) also keeping the batsmen on a tight leash, the KKR's spin troika in their 12 overs gave away only 65 runs with four boundaries.
Devdutt Padikkal (21 off 18 balls) and skipper Virat Kohli (39 off 33 balls) got off to a great start by adding 49 runs in the first five Powerplay overs after Eoin Morgan started with left-arm spin of Shakib.
The opening duo attacked an under-pressure Shivam Mavi with as many as five boundaries coming in those first few overs.
However it was Lockie Ferguson (2/30), whose extra pace did Padikkal in as the left-hander, trying to cut, dragged a delivery, pitched well outside off-stump.
RCB's last league match hero Kona Bharat (9 off 15 balls) was clearly troubled because of the slowness of the track with spinners getting the ball to grip off the surface.
He was Narine's first of the four victims when he tried to loft the spinner over long-off but didn't reach to the pitch of the delivery and holed out in the deep by Venkatesh Iyer.
Kohli, who has had good starts in most games but lost the momentum post Powerplay overs with the field spread, once again went into a shell.
The shot that got him out had desperation writ large over it as the slog sweep to a fuller delivery from Narine was never on. The result was a pegged back leg-stump which also spelt doom for RCB.
AB de Villiers (11) has had his worst IPL season and it was a real beauty from Narine -- a classical off-break that went through the gate to embarrass the legendary Proteas.
RCB's best player of the season Maxwell (15) was supposed to have a bad day as per 'Law of Averages' and did catch up with him trying to slog sweep Narine's off-spinner which ballooned to short third-man to make it a dream day for the Trinidad man.
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TMC will be voted back to power in Bengal: Tejashwi Yadav
Patna (PTI): Leader of Opposition in Bihar assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, on Tuesday exuded confidence that the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC will again be voted to power in West Bengal.
Yadav returned to Patna after a four-day poll campaign in West Bengal.
“The atmosphere there is euphoric and people want to bring Didi (Mamata Banerjee) back to power. I am fully confident that the TMC will win the election,” he told reporters here.
He said that a large number of people from Bihar living in West Bengal share a lot of love and respect for Mamata Banerjee.
Responding to BJP’s allegations that the TMC had “ruined” West Bengal during its tenure, the RJD leader said the “entire country has been ruined under the Narendra Modi-led government”.
“I want to ask one question to Modi ji – you have been prime minister for more than 11 years, tell me one thing you have done for Bengal,” Yadav said.
The first phase of elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly was held on April 23, while the second phase will take place on April 29. Votes will be counted on May 4.
