Fresh doubts hover on the West Indies tweaker's bowling action after he trapped the RCB batting great with a seemingly chucked delivery in Kolkata.
The wicket of Virat Kohli may have been the highlight of Sunil Narine’s influential spell in Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) comprehensive victory in IPL 2023 on Thursday (April 6) night, but the West Indies mystery spinner has fallen under scrutiny for the same, as fresh doubts emerge over the legality of his under-scanner bowling action in the cricketing fraternity.
The KKR lead tweaker got the esteemed Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) opener out bowled while batting on 21* off 17 balls when the right-hander tried to play an off-break towards the leg-side. Missing the delivery completely, Kohli had to make the long walk back just when he was setting himself up for a long haul.
Narine eventually finished with figures of 2 for 16 off his 4 overs to help KKR dismiss RCB for a paltry 123 in response to their imposing 204/7. The bowler applied extensive pressure on the opposition batting unit and saw them wilt away, losing by a whopping 81 runs in what are still the early stages of IPL 2023.
The brilliant execution of the spell wasn’t up for debate. But the Caribbean maverick finished the day with doubts once again on the legality of his bowling action. That Narine perhaps bent his bowling arm for more than the legally allowed degree during the Kohli dismissal is being debated on the social media right now.
Those doubts were brought to light by one of RCB’s passionate followers ‘Pradyoth’ on Twitter through a clip, where a slow-mo breakdown of Sunil Narine’s action and release following the delivery stride seems to suggest that the West Indies spinner did chuck his way to the Virat Kohli dismissal.
In the clip, which was quote tweeted to an official clip posted over IPL’s own Twitter handle, one can see that Narine seems to have bent his bowling arm to more than the legally allowed range of 15 degrees to find skid on his off-break.
I’ll never get how this is allowed. What’s the match referee and umpires doing. https://t.co/sQEE9bSphV pic.twitter.com/mmjk6eYUJm
— Pradhyoth (@Pradhyoth1) April 7, 2023
As is known, Narine has a notorious history of erring on the legality of his bowling action and has been called out by IPL and international match officials on multiple occasions for the same.
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The cricketer has each time found means to comeback after undergoing remodelled work, especially with the KKR think-tank retaining their faith on him.
But doubts persist about his action as he continues to tempt the fine line with his release and arm flex quite regularly
