Kolkata: Amid the chaos of the ball flying over the boundary on Tuesday, it was noteworthy that Sunil Narine didn’t finish his full set of overs. This is a rare occurrence. After all, Narine made history as the first player in T20 to bowl a maiden Super Over back in the Caribbean Premier League in 2014.

Narine boasts an impressive economy rate of 6.75 in the IPL and has taken 182 wickets throughout his career.

Since joining the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for $700,000 in 2012, Narine has played 181 IPL matches and has only failed to bowl his full four overs eight times when KKR bowled first. Notably, he completed his overs in every match during the 2014, 2015, 2021, 2022, and 2024 seasons, regardless of whether KKR batted first or second.

The last time Narine didn’t bowl his full quota while KKR was bowling first was against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on April 23, 2023. Prior to that, it happened in 2020 against Delhi Capitals in Sharjah.

In that match against CSK, Narine struggled, conceding 13 runs in his first over and finishing with 23 runs in just two overs. KKR had three spinners on the field that day, including Suyash Sharma and Varun Chakravarthy. In their game against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), KKR relied on Chakravarthy and Narine, their go-to bowlers for taking wickets and controlling the run rate, especially during the middle overs.

After Chakravarthy bowled during the power play and conceded three runs in his first over, Narine was introduced from the Club House End in the seventh over. True to his style, Narine's first delivery zipped into Marsh. This set the tone for the afternoon, especially after KKR won the toss and chose to field, as Marsh quickly slog-swept the next ball for six. The following delivery was slightly short, and Marsh pulled it for four. Although Narine bowled three dot balls, he still ended up giving away 13 runs when Marsh finished the over with a lap sweep.

In his second over, Narine gave away nine runs, with Marsh hitting him for a four through cover before he was taken off. Ajinkya Rahane decided to bring in pace bowlers on a pitch that had turned into a nightmare for bowlers, highlighted by Shardul Thakur’s 11-ball over. Narine returned to bowl in the 15th over after LSG had scored 66 runs, losing only Aiden Markram in the process.

Narine managed to keep the aggressive pair of Pooran and Marsh quiet for the first three balls, but then he was hit for two sixes. Both came from Pooran, the first one on the leg side and the second, which turned out to be Narine's last delivery of the night, over long-off. In a match that KKR lost by four runs while chasing 239, that six followed a wide delivery from Narine.

“Nicolas Pooran was doing well against him,” KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane explained when asked why Narine didn’t complete his overs. “Playing against spinners was easier with one boundary being shorter. (Andre) Russell had taken a wicket in the previous over, so I decided to stick with him. Sunil was having a tough day,” he told the official broadcasters.

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