A rare Narine flop

Kolkata Knight Riders managed a rare victory against Delhi Daredevils, but an ever rarer event occurred during the match: Sunil Narine went at more than nine an over - the 38 runs he conceded are his most expensive figures in an IPL game. His previous-worst, in terms of runs conceded, was 37 in four in the 2012 final against Chennai Super Kings. Those are the only instances, in the 39 IPL games that Narine has played, when he has gone at more than nine an over. As it turned out, Kolkata Knight Riders won both those games - by five wickets in 2012 final, and by eight wickets against Delhi. While JP Duminy (18 off 7 balls) and Kedar Jadhav (13 off 7) were the two batsmen who scored heavily off Narine in Delhi, Suresh Raina took him apart in the 2012 final, scoring 28 from just 12 balls.

While Narine going for so many runs was unusual, what was also unusual was Narine's economy rate (9.50) being higher than the overall innings run rate of the opposition team (8.00). It's only the third such instance in Narine's IPL history - this had happened once each in the last two seasons.

One of them was against Kings XI Punjab in 2013, when he also went at more than eight an over: he conceded 33 in four,while Kings XI scored 157, a run rate of 7.85. In that game Narine had figures of 3 for 10 after three overs, but his fourth went for 23 - his most expensive IPL over - as Manpreet Gony struck him for 16 runs in three balls. Against Daredevils today, his third over - the 18th of the innings - went for 17, which equals his second-most expensive over in the IPL. In the 2012 IPL final, his most expensive over went for 14.

The third instance when Narine's economy rate was higher than the opposition team's run rate was a low-scoring game against Deccan Chargers in 2012, when Narine took 2 for 26 in four (ER 6.50), but Chargers scored only 126 (run rate 6.30). Knight Riders ended up winning that game quite easily, by five wickets with an over to spare, lending further credence to the theory that the team has ended up doing quite well when their main bowler has underperformed.

Instances of Narine's ER higher than opposition team RR

Match	Narine's figures	Opp. score	Narine ER	Opp RR	Result
v Delhi Daredevils, 2014	4-0-38-1	160	9.50	8.00	KKR won by 8 wkts
v Kings XI Punjab, 2013	4-0-33-3	157	8.25	7.85	KKR lost by 4 runs
v Deccan Chargers, 2012	4-0-26-2	126	6.50	6.30	KKR won by 5 wkts

Instances of Narine going for more than 8 an over in the IPL

Match	Narine's figures	Econ rate	Match result
v Delhi Daredevils, 2014	4-0-38-1	9.50	KKR won by 8 wickets
v Chennai Super Kings, 2012	4-0-37-1	9.25	KKR won by 5 wickets
v Chennai Super Kings, 2013	4-0-35-1	8.75	KKR lost by 14 runs
v Kings XI Punjab, 2013	4-0-33-3	8.25	KKR lost by 4 runs