"He chose the Ram Navami day and did Narayan Narayan to everyone" - Aakash Chopra lauds Sunil Narine's performance in KKR's IPL 2024 loss to RR

Aakash Chopra has lauded Sunil Narine's all-round performance in the Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) IPL 2024 loss to the Rajasthan Royals (RR).

Narine smashed 109 runs off 56 deliveries as KKR set RR a mammoth 224-run target in Kolkata on Tuesday, April 16. Although the spin-bowling all-rounder also took two wickets and a catch, Jos Buttler's unbeaten 107 off 60 deliveries took the visitors to a two-wicket win off the final delivery.

Reviewing the game in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra noted that Narine gave a divine performance a day before Ram Navami.

"Rajasthan's players became available. There was a slight niggle, so Jos Buttler came as an impact player and Ravichandran Ashwin played. However, a storm came from the other end. The storm's name was Sunil Narine. He chose the Ram Navami day and did Narayan Narayan to everyone," he said (10:05).

The former India opener noted that the West Indian all-rounder would be aggrieved that his splendid performance came in a losing cause.

"He hit a lot. I will once again say as a broken record that he has power and the ability to hit but you don't relate consistency with him. However, the way he is batting and doing it consistently, he became the first player to score a century, take a wicket, actually took two and not one wicket, and a catch but they still lost the match," Chopra elaborated.

"It was an injustice. If you perform like this and you still lose the match, it pains a lot because you did everything. One-man army - you took on the entire universe but that was also not enough," he added.

Narine smashed 13 fours and six sixes in his 109-run knock. He also took a good catch to dismiss Sanju Samson and got rid of Dhruv Jurel and Rovman Powell with the ball. However, his all-round performance went in vain.

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"It seemed like it was better to stay away from an accident" - Aakash Chopra on Ravichandran Ashwin's bowling to Sunil Narine

Sunil Narine took full advantage of the wide line bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin. [P/C: iplt20.com]

Reflecting on the Rajasthan Royals' bowling, Aakash Chopra questioned Ravichandran Ashwin's tactics against Sunil Narine.

"Ravichandran Ashwin was bowling wides. He was bowling far away from him (Narine). It's said that it's better to be late than have an accident but from Ashwin's bowling, it seemed like it was better to stay away from an accident. So many extras - Shahrukh Khan was saying that he doesn't use so many extras in his songs these days," he said (11:40).

The reputed commentator noted that RR's bowling was quite ordinary. He also questioned them for fielding only five frontline bowlers despite having the luxury of the Impact Player rule.