On this day in 2015, a warm afternoon at Eden Gardens greeted the two sides Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab (now called Punjab Kings) in the 44th league match of the 8th season of the Indian Premier League.

The visiting side had won the toss and elected to bat first on a sluggish surface at Eden Gardens. The opening combination of Murali Vijay and Manan Vohra started the innings in a commanding fashion, making optimum use of the field restrictions.

What followed was nothing short of MAGICAL!
Video hosted on BCCI/www.iplt20.com website


Vijay and Vohra stitched a crucial opening partnership of 45 runs before Narine was handed the responsibility of slowing things down by then captain Gautam Gambhir. The Trinidadian soon produced a magical delivery to get rid of Vijay in the penultimate ball of the powerplay. Consistently bowling at the stumps and hitting the right line and length, he was soon rewarded with another wicket, Vohra returning a catch to him off his own bowling.

The mystery spinner from Trinidad has been an integral part of the Knight Riders Family and is often assigned the difficult task of bowling in the field restrictions or the death overs of the innings. This game was no different as he returned with the ball in the back end of the innings to dent the opposition with two more crucial wickets in the 17th over of the innings. 

With Glenn Maxwell and Wriddhiman Saha well set in the middle, Punjab was looking to capitalise in the final four overs of the innings. However, Narine wrecked through the batting unit dismissing both batsmen in the space of three deliveries.

In an otherwise high scoring encounter, Narine returned remarkable figures of 4/19 runs in his quota of 4 overs, including 13 dot balls to help the team restrict the opposition for a total of 183/5. KKR eventually managed to edge past their counterparts with a ball to spare. Andre Russell was the hero of the chase, smashing 51 off just 21 deliveries.