IPL 2020: Sunil Narine reported for suspected illegal bowling action

Abu Dhabi: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) player Sunil Narine has been reported for bowling with a Suspected illegal Bowling Action during his side’s Dream11 Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 match against Kings XI Punjab here on Saturday.

The report was made by the on-field umpires according to the IPL’s Suspected Illegal Bowling Action Policy. Narine will be placed on the Warning List and is permitted to continue to bowl in the tournament, IPL statement here said.

Another report will result in Narine being suspended from bowling in the Dream11 IPL 2020 until cleared by the BCCI Suspect Bowling Action Committee.

Earlier on Saturday, KKR eked out a win against Kings XI Punjab in Match No. 24 of the Dream XI IPL 2020 not only by two runs but also by a few millimetres. Glenn Maxwell swung his bat hard at the last ball, needing a six to equalise the scores, and just when everybody thought it was going into the super over, the ball landed a few millimetres inside the rope.

Punjab were cruising at one point, needing just 29 runs off 24balls with 9 wickets in hand. Mayank Agarwal (56 off 39) and skipper KL Rahul looked at ease and posted 115 runs for the first wicket.

The turnaround came when Nicholas Pooran (16 off 10) played an unnecessary shot only to be castled by the magician Sunil ‘Dumbledore’ Narine in the 18th over. He not only picked up the wicket but also conceded just 2 runs off the over to push KXIP on the backfoot.

Captain Rahul was beholding the craftmanship of Narine from the non-striker’s end as the new entrant Prabhsimran Singh struggled to cope with the pressure. Prasidh Krishna (3/29), who was playing his first match this season, effected a double whammy on KXIP in the next over as he sent back Prabhsimran (4) as well as the well-set Rahul for 74 runs (58 balls).

Needing 14 runs off the last over, KXIP still had their hopes intact as Maxwell was in the middle. But Narine (2/28) kept his calm and bowled a clinical over to fetch us our 4th win.

“The way Rahul and Mayank batted, we thought we needed to do something really special to come back into the game. Prasidh is special. The way he came back and bowled in the second spell shows how good he is. Sunil Narine stands up for us a lot of time. He is calm. He is always looking to find the best way to contribute to the team.

Not only Sunil, a lot of credit needs to be given to Morgan and McCullum. I am very lucky to have the world’s best captain by results in my side,” said KKR captain Dinesh Karthik after the win.

Earlier, KKR won the toss and batted first to post 164/6. Karthik finally returned to form and led from the front with a breezy 29-ball 58.

KKR next play RCB on October 12 in Sharjah. (UNI)