Narine brings double the value in Lynn's absence

Gautam Gambhir elected to bowl on a relaid Eden Gardens pitch that was meant to assist fast bowlers. That didn't appear the case when Kings XI Punjab had raced off to 45 in the first four overs. Three of Gambhir's pacers had bowled within that period.

Sunil Narine was then handed the ball, and it looked like he was testing the pitch theory out too. He started with two balls down the leg side, the second one an inswinger with an upright seam. The result was seven runs conceded without having bowled a legitimate ball. Those were to be his last transgressions with the ball. He conceded one off the next six balls, and held that theme for the rest of his bowling spell.

Narine conceded more than a single just once more in his bowling spell, thereby strangling Kings XI in the middle overs. The strangle began when he cramped pinch-hitter Marcus Stoinis and forced him to chop on. This was in the middle of a two-over spell where he conceded only seven runs. That spell was crucial, and the accumulation of dot balls accounted for both Hashim Amla and Glenn Maxwell in the next few overs, the two falling three balls apart after getting off to starts.

Narine was sloppy in the field, particularly when he dropped a catch off Trent Boult early on and later conceded a four at third man. But he made up for it with his economy as King XI attempted an attack. He ended up conceding just 19 off his four overs.

The completion of his job, however, came when KKR pushed him up to open the batting. It's a strategy his last two T20 franchises - Melbourne Renegades and Lahore Qalandars - have tried. Here, he swiped unceremoniously at balls outside off stump and missed a lot of them, even as Gambhir picked the gaps at the other end. But after creeping to 12 off 11 and making everyone question the decision of pushing him ahead of Uthappa, Narine finally took off. It started with Maxwell dropping two short deliveries to give him a release, and he used it to cash in on Varun Aaron's pace, using the pacer's leg-stump line to pick up 16 off three balls before holing out off the fourth. By that time, though, he had 37 off 18 and Kolkata had 76 off 5.4 overs - enough of a platform to make the rest of the chase a crawl.

When Aaron was handed the ball in the sixth over, there was an unstated expectation that he might do what Umesh Yadav had done earlier. The pitch was there too, for a bowler like him to succeed. His job was to break the partnership. Which he did. But not before three shots from Narine had all but sealed it for KKR.

The first one was off Aaron's first ball. It was at a decent length, and it was pacey too - 141 kph. But it was on Narine's preferred leg-stump line. The heave over leg side is Narine's most productive shot, but on this occasion he showed a new skill. He held his shape, offered the full face of the bat, and watched it closely as he lifted it over long-on with a short-arm jab.

"He's a quality bowler, but I think I need to start trusting him more with the bat now!"
Gautam Gambhir

"Really thrilled tonight. I was able to get a smile on the face of Sunil Narine in the post-match interview."
Sanjay Manjrekar, on Twitter