Veteran KKR spinner Sunil Narine stepped up with the ball in what was a must-win encounter for KKR against hosts Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Chekapuk on Sunday evening.
Sunil Narine hasn’t been at his best in the IPL 2023 and has been having perhaps his worst IPL season ever. Coming into this match he had taken only 7 wickets in 12 matches and had leaked runs at an economy of 8.5, his worst economy in any IPL season since making his IPL debut way back in 2012.
However, against the mighty CSK, the West Indian off-spinner gave CSK a double blow in a single over dismissing two already struggling batters, Ambati Rayudu and Moeen Ali, to give KKR an upper hand after MS Dhoni had won the toss and elected to bat first on a dry, spin-assisting Chepauk surface.
On the first ball of the 11th over of CSK’s innings, Suni Narine got closer to the stumps and shaped the ball drifting slightly away from Rayudu, who went down for a sweep shot. The ball turned in and stayed low to beat the inside edge of Rayudu’s sweep and crashed into the sticks. Rayudu hit his bat onto his pads in frustration as his season continues in the doldrums.
Then, on the last ball of the same over, Sunil Narine went around the wicket to left-hander Moeen Ali. Narine bowled a length delivery outside the off-stump which went on with the angle and sneaked in sharply through Moeen’s defenses, the batter foxed with the vicious inward movement after pitching and his feet not moving at all. The result: the leg stump lay flat on the ground.
Watch: Sunil Narine shows his spin mastery to castle Rayudu and Moeen:
Ambati Rayudu ✅
Moeen Ali ✅Bamboozling twice, the Sunil Narine way 😎
Relive the two dismissals here 🎥🔽 #TATAIPL | #CSKvKKR pic.twitter.com/QnM2nnWRww
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 14, 2023
CSK posted 144/6 after skipper MS Dhoni had won the toss and elected to bat first. Devon Conway scored 30 runs while Shivam Dube cracked 48 runs. For KKR, both Varun CV and Narine bagged two wickets each.
Teams:
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Jason Roy, Nitish Rana(c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Varun Chakaravarthy
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w/c), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana
