The quiet, consistent brilliance of Sunil Narine

Anukul Roy turned around to embrace his team-mate. Varun Chakravarthy slapped him on the back. Rahmanullah Gurbaz beamed from ear to ear, while Ajinkya Rahane and Rinku Singh both cheered in celebration. Only Sunil Narine remained unmoved as 'OUT' flashed up on the big screens, utterly emotionless as he pursed his lips.

It is easy to get caught up in IPL 2025's delirium: sold-out crowds, bright floodlights, cheerleaders, smoke machines, and the strains of Roar Macha over a deafening public-address system. But Narine has seen and heard it all before across 186 IPL appearances; he will soon overtake Kieron Pollard as the most-capped overseas player in the league's history.

Yet even Narine's calmness could not conceal the significance of the moment. He has spent most of his career looking utterly ambivalent to the very idea of fielding, but his dead-eye pick-up-and-throw from short fine leg was perfection. It caught KL Rahul just short of his ground at the striker's end, and put Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on track to defend 204.

"I'm obviously not the greatest fielder," Narine said with a smile at the post-match presentation. "But it's always good to give a good run-out whenever it's possible." His thought process, he said, was as simple as it could be: "Just pick up and swing, and throw the ball as hard as possible."

Two nights after a stellar all-round performance from Krunal Pandya defeated Delhi Capitals (DC), Narine delivered an even better one. His run-out came after he had cracked 27 off 16 balls from the top of the order, and shortly before he was pressed into captaincy duties with Rahane (struck on the hand) and Venkatesh Iyer (subbed out) both off the field.

But Narine's biggest contribution came with the ball. His first 13 balls cost 25 runs, including three towering sixes from Axar Patel; after the third, DC needed 69 off 41 and were ahead of the game. In his next seven deliveries, Narine had put KKR in control: Axar miscued to extra cover, Tristan Stubbs was done on the inside edge, and Faf du Plessis picked out deep midwicket.

Narine has been opening the batting on and off in the IPL since 2017, and opposition captains know what to expect from him by now. But his potential to wreak havoc is still enough to make bowlers - and captains - second-guess themselves: after opening the bowling two games in a row, Axar did not dare bring himself on while Narine was at the crease.

He hit the first ball he faced for six - a feat nobody has done more often in the IPL - by swinging Dushmantha Chameera straight back over his head, and his opening stand with Rahmanullah Gurbaz was worth 48 in just under three overs. Kevin Pietersen, DC's mentor, said that Narine's presence had prompted Axar to give Mitchell Starc a third over in the powerplay; he gave the strike to Rahane, who slog-swept him for six then whipped him for four.

And with the ball, Narine remains a banker for any captain under pressure - including, on this occasion, himself. His lengths are typically immaculate, and while analysts now have more than 500 T20 matches worth of footage on Narine across nearly 15 years, batters still struggle to read his variations out of the hand.

"He's been a champion bowler for this franchise," Rahane said. "It's so good to have him and Varun in the team: I can always go back to them whenever we are in trouble… He's been working really hard, coming early for the practice sessions, bowling for hours and hours in the nets."

Narine has never been an expressive player: he has very rarely given interviews outside of contractual obligations, and wears his emotions lightly. But it is all too easy to make assumptions about players' character without knowing them: Andre Russell, the man who has played more with Narine than anyone else, believes he is misunderstood.

"He's very active when he's on the field," Russell said. "A lot of guys maybe misjudge him. He's a quiet individual when he is in a certain environment, where he's not comfortable. But on the park, he's a leader. He's been more talkative over the last five years, and it just goes to show that when you express yourself, you enjoy the game and your performance shows as well."

Narine is largely motivated by "self-pride" at this stage in his career, aged 36. "I always want to be able to give the captain an option that any time you're in a pressure situation, you have someone - and that comes with hard work," he said. "If you want to be that kind of player, you have to put in hard work."

If Narine has not quite lived up to his performances of last season, that is largely because he had set himself such a high bar: 488 runs and 17 wickets in a title-winning campaign, securing an unprecedented third MVP award. Even in what has been a relatively quiet year by his standards, Narine sits sixth in ESPNcricinfo's own MVP rankings.

It is easy to take Narine's consistency for granted, but consider this a mark of his longevity. When KKR first signed Narine at the 2012 auction, Vaibhav Suryavanshi was yet to celebrate his first birthday. Now, Suryavanshi is an IPL centurion for Rajasthan Royals - and Narine is still winning games in purple and gold almost single-handedly.