After Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) achieved a commanding victory over the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), supporters have expressed dissatisfaction with Sunil Narine’s delivery that led to Virat Kohli’s dismissal. On Thursday, KKR hosted RCB once more at the Eden Gardens for the 9th game of the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL).
Having been put into bat following the toss loss, KKR was able to post an impressive total of 204 runs. Initially, KKR was struggling with just 89 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. However, Shardul Thakur’s explosive hitting, scoring 67 runs in only 29 deliveries, including the joint-fastest fifty in just 20 balls in IPL 2023, and with the assistance of Rinku Singh, turned things around.
Consequently, KKR bounced back and set a target that ultimately proved insurmountable for Bangalore. Although RCB started well, scoring more than 40 runs in 4 overs, they quickly collapsed due to KKR’s exceptional spin trio of Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, and Suyash Sharma. The credit for drawing first blood goes to Sunil Narine, who bowled a brilliant delivery that Virat Kohli was unable to read and got dismissed.
Sunil Narine has previously been vulnerable to illegal bowling action, resulting in his suspension from cricket for a period of time. However, he subsequently modified his action and received ICC’s clearance to play after undergoing a bowling test.
Despite all the controversy, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) produced one of their worst performances. Fans expressed dissatisfaction with the decision to promote Michael Bracewell to third in the batting order, followed by Harshal Patel at number five.
At one point, RCB appeared to be heading for a total of less than 100 runs until the final pair of David Willey and Akash Deep put together a partnership of 27 runs for the last wicket. RCB’s next match is at home against the Lucknow Super Giants on April 10th.