‘Windball Cricket’ Key To Narine’s Batting Success!

Apr 26, 2017 at 11:10 AM

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‘Windball Cricket’ Key To Narine’s Batting Success!

In this tenth edition of IPL , one of the most consistent performers has been Kolkata Knight Riders; the key reason has been a balanced side and some out of the box decisions taken by the franchise.

Letting Chris Lynn open with Gambhir worked wonders but as he got injured; KKR went for Sunil Narine. It was a surprise for all other teams and also for the masses. But Narine never dissapointed the Knights think tank and emerged as a destructive opener.

In four matches, the 28-year-old Trinidadian has scored 119 runs from 59 balls. There was a phase where the southpaw had scored 60 runs on the trot only in boundaries.

This isn’t the first instance of Narine opening in a T20 match. He had done it on a couple of occasions in the Big Bash League (BBL) earlier this year. But the consistency -34 (17 balls), 42 (17 balls), 37 (18 balls) -he has showcased has been phenomenal in the IPL. It was his 34 that proved to be the gamechanger against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday night.

AR Shrikanth, who has been the performance analyst of KKR for the past 10 seasons and also worked with the Trinbago Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League, said playing “windball cricket” in West Indies has helped Narine become a terrific striker of the ball.
Windball cricket is a mini-premier league played in the Caribbean with a softball under floodlights every year and it involves prize money as well.

It is 8-overs-a-side contest and played mostly on concrete surface. The popularity of the tournament among these West Indian cricketers is such that Bravo once said “windball cricket is better organised” than WICB.

“Once I was in Sunil’s house during the last CPL. There was a huge trophy cabinet in his house. Apart from IPL trophies, most of those were batting awards. He told me that it was for his batting in all local tournaments. He has played a lot of windball cricket. It’s a big tournament there,” Shrikanth told TOI on Monday.

“He is a champion allrounder in that form of cricket. I think it has helped him become a natural striker. He has a good sense of timing, can hit the ball hard and has a beautiful bat swing,” he added.

In fact, Shrikanth, who was there in Australia to watch BBL as a ta lent scout, was “surprised” when Narine opened the innings for Melbourne Renegades.

“Even before the BBL, Sunil has won us a few games with the bat lower down the order in the CPL for Trinbago. He is the fifth highest six hitter in PSL for Lahore Qalandars last season batting down.But I was surprised to see him open because of the bouncy conditions in Australia,” he added.

 

Shrikanth further said the decision to open with Narine was made by the coaching staff comprising of Kallis, Simon Katich and L Balaji. “It wasn’t about anybody spotting his talent with the bat. We all knew he had the talent. It was a matter of where to use him. The message for him was to express himself. He is very unpredictable as a batsman, so it’s difficult to set a field for him  as a bowling unit.”

“If he gets a 10-ball 20 it’s a bonus. We have nothing to lose even if he gets out first ball. He did work hard on his batting. But it was about see ball, hit ball,” he added.
Shrikanth said he ‘wouldn’t be surprised’ if Narine goes on to score a hundred in T20 cricket.
“He has got a brilliant cricketing brain. Even your good balls can get hit for fours when you are up against someone like Narine,” he added.
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