Sunil Naraine does the star turn for KKR

In hindsight, it turned out to be a master stroke….   Yesterday the match was at Wankhede, the home of Mumbai Indians who packed their team with fast bowlers, Gambhir had 3 spinners – was it wrong reading of pitch was what viewers were asked about.  KKR took a smart decision months earlier, which is paying rich dividends. 

Nearer the end, the Board is complicated – Delhi is through; Pune Warriors and Deccan Chargers have no chance – KKR is close – but the field is wide open with some must win matches …. Sounds interesting.  Here is the point table :

Teams	Mat	Won	Lost	N/R	Pts	Net RR
Delhi Daredevils	14	10	4	0	20	0.715
Kolkata Knight Riders	15	9	5	1	19	0.478
Mumbai Indians	15	9	6	0	18	-0.16
Chennai Super Kings	15	8	6	1	17	0.214
Royal Challengers	14	7	6	1	15	-0.072
Rajasthan Royals	14	7	7	0	14	0.335
Kings XI Punjab	14	7	7	0	14	-0.293
Pune Warriors	15	4	11	0	8	-0.477
Deccan Chargers	14	2	11	1	5	-0.68

The much talked Sunil Naraine made his debut at Motera when West Indies toured India in end 2011.  He is not new to us as in the Champions League T20 2011 – his guise was seen as he played for  Trinidad & Tobago………….. and in the IPL 5 auction, KKR bought him at  at $700000. (Rs.3.40 crore)  from a base price of $ 50000 (24 lakhs)  - some questioned the wisdom – but he has been improving match after match and was virtually unplayable in some.

Yesterday, he was largely instrumental in KKR defending a paltry 140 for 7 – restricting MI to 108 and winning by 32 runs.  Naraine had 4 for 15.  Generally, the home team knows the conditions better and Gambhir playing 3 spinners when MI had pacers raised eye-brows but in hindsight Gambhir’s decision was vindicated by the performance.  KKR did well to recover from a horror start, thanks to Manoj Tiwary, still the target was largely gettable as MI prospered slowly in chase.

Sunil Naraine produced a beauty that spun and jumped to crash Sachin Tendulkar’s stumps and but for a dropped catch, he would have ended with a 5 wicket haul, a rarity in batsmen dominated  T20.  

Herschelle Gibbs is clearly over the hill and he puffed his way playing full 4 overs on his own.  Dwayne Smith was out for a duck and Rohit Sharma was flummoxed by Naraine’s guile

May be the pitch at Wankhede was not conducive for run making, still 32 runs is a huge deficit and KKR managed a comfortable win, after looking likely to lose.

More were to happen off field as the owner of KKR, Shahrukh Khan misbehaved and hit the news for wrong reasons.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar