After tasting success with their experiment of opening the innings with off-spinner Sunil Narine, Kolkata Knight Riders once again persisted with the West Indian to partner Gautam Gambhir at the top of the order in the ongoing match against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Eden Gardens.
Narine had managed to give the two-time IPL champions flying starts in the previous matches and the left-handed batsman once again succeeded to give his team a quickfire start as he blasted Samuel Badree for three fours and a six in the very first over. With Narine hitting almost every delivery for a boundary, Gambhir was trying to play the second fiddle.
The hosts had raced away to 48 in only 3.3 overs with Narine batting on 28 off 10 while Gambhir playing on 14 off the same number of deliveries before the latter was dismissed in a dramatic fashion.
Gambhir was finding it tough to time his shots and in one such attempt, he seemed to have edged a Tymal Mills delivery to Kedar Jadhav behind the stumps. There was a definite sound and as expected the Bangalore fielders went up in unison only to see the umpire asking them to wait for the final decision. The decision was referred to the third umpire who took his time to give the final verdict. In the meantime, the ever-animated Royal Challengers skipper Virat Kohli was seen having an highly animated discussion with the on-field umpires.
The decision finally came and was rightly given in the favour of the bowling side as Gambhir walked off the pitch after scoring 14 off 11 balls.
Here is a clip of that dismissal:
https://twitter.com/Videos_SW/status/856176694989926401