IPL 2021 Eliminator: Sunil Narine’s all round show helps KKR defeat RCB by 4 wickets; face Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 2

KKR’s Sunil Narine produced one of his best performances in IPL on Monday night in the Qualifier 1 against RCB at Sharjah. Image Courtesy: BCCI/IPL

Xtra Time Web Desk: Sunil Narine reserved one of his best all round performances in IPL 2021 as he took 4/21 and scored a valuable 26 runs off 15 balls to help Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) knock out Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Eliminator at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Monday.

Chasing a modest victory target of 139 runs, KKR reached home with two balls to spare. It was a disappointing result for Virat Kohli as he ends his stint as RCB captain without an IPL title. Kohli led RCB in 140 matches from 2011-2021, winning 66 and losing 70 without 4 of them producing no result.

Narine became only the second bowler in the history of IPL to pick Kohli, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell in the same innings. 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 gave away only 65 runs with four boundaries in 12 overs.

Shubman Gill gave his team a brisk start in powerplay, scoring 29 runs off 18 balls while Venkatesh Iyer scored 26 off 30 balls. There were useful contributions from the KKR middle order with the likes of Nitish Rana (23) and Sunil Narine (26) scoring some valuable runs. Narine hit three sixes from Dan Christian’s 12th over. In the end it was the experience of Eoin Morgan (5) and Shakib Al Hasan (9) that saw KKR home.

Earlier Virat Kohli (39 from 33) and Devdutt Padikkal (21 off 18) gave RCB a blazing start scoring almost fifty in 5 overs. But failure in the middle order saw Bangalore getting restricted to 138/7.

Knight Riders will now face Delhi Capitals in the Qualifier 2 at the same venue on Wednesday.