IPL 2021, Eliminator: Sunil Narine’s all-round masterclass helps KKR beat RCB by 4 wickets

Sunil Narine starred with both ball and bat as Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by four wickets in the Indian Premier League 2021 Eliminator, ending Virat Kohli’s pursuit of winning an IPL trophy as captain.

KKR will now meet Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 2 on Tuesday to decide Chennai Super Kings’ opponents for the title clash on October 15.

IPL 2021 Eliminator, RCB vs KKR as it happened: Narine’s heroics help KKR win by 4 wickets

Narine, who had to remodel his action after coming under the scanner due to a suspect action multiple times, ran through RCB’s batting order with sensational bowling figures of 4/21.

He then produced a crucial knock of 26 runs from 15 balls that made a tricky chase of 139 slightly easier in the end. KKR got home with two balls to spare.

Kohli, who was captaining RCB for the last time, did make a contentious decision by opting to bat on a sluggish surface which also offered turn.

Narine sent RCB’s biggest guns back in the dugout as Kohli, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell had no answer to his turning deliveries.

With Varun Chakravarthy (0/20) not conceding a single boundary and Shakib Al Hasan (0/24) also keeping the batsmen on a tight leash, the KKR’s spin troika…

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