West Indies spinner Sunil Narine grabbed the early headlines as he single-handedly destroyed the Delhi Daredevils in the opening match of the world’s richest Twenty20 tournament — the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, India on Wednesday.
Narine, playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders team, has already been tagged as the mystery spinner and was awarded the man of the tournament award during the last edition of the tournament.
A question was raised whether the spinner will be as effective in this version of the meet as well.
Narine gave a strong reply to those who doubted his abilities in the very first match itself by finishing with four for 13 from his four overs.
The spinner came in the sixth over of the match and straight-away claimed Delhi Daredevils’ opener David Warner’s wicket. He returned to action in the 16th over and picked up three more victims in his next three overs that earned him the man of the match award.
The 24-year-old enjoyed bowling on the Eden track. His assessment of the pitch was that it had “more bounce than last year.” A full house Eden Gardens shouted their lungs out for their favourite Knighter Narine.
“My idea was to use variations and keep into right areas. I want to enjoy my bowling and continue doing good stuff.”
His feat won accolades from different quarters too. Former India and KKR skipper Sourav Ganguly who watched the match from the galleries said, “For (KKR skipper) Gautam Gambhir, he is the man with the golden arm. He was the person behind KKR’s success last season. He is their trump card and will again create an impact this time.”
Ganguly feels Narine has plenty of variety which is keeping the batsmen guessing.
But it’s not only the batsmen but even wicketkeeper Manvinder Bisla is having a trying time keeping against Narine.
“I am trying my best to read him (Narine) all the time and the biggest problem is that he brings in so many variations; every match he has something new. So, it’s not easy to pick him, and that’s why batsmen struggle against him,” he said.
So, how does he cope? “Maybe that wee bit of extra time that I get (as a keeper) makes it that bit easier, but it’s still very difficult. I also get to practice with him at nets,” smiled the 28-year-old.
Bisla believes Narine’s biggest strength is the tight line and length he manages to maintain. “He experiments a lot but what really works is his control. The variations delivered in that tight line and length means he is never easy to hit. He can be very frustrating for batsmen.”
It remains to be seen whether the Narine magic continues to work throughout this edition of the IPL too.
