Nonchalant Narine a captain’s dream

"No true KKR fan can ever forget how Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine pummeled RCB's bowling attack that night…Good old days, six years have passed by since. This (Phil) Salt-Narine pair will wreak more havoc in the coming days. I think Sunny (Narine) should continue as an opener…it's true that we cannot read Gauti's (Gautam Gambhir) mind, but the order can remain unchanged for a couple more matches," a source told Mid-Day, hours after Kolkata Knight Riders' bowling unit dispatched a bunch of slogs toward a cricket-starved Vizag crowd baying for Delhi Capitals' blood.

After the six-hitting spree that rendered Delhi helpless throughout the first innings on Wednesday, the outcome of the match was never truly in question. It was the kind of sustained carnage unseen by an off-spinner.

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Riled by some offensive taunts from the crowd as he was walking in to bat, Narine turned his focus on absolute mayhem with the willow. Bowler after bowler, quite a handful of them, including veteran Ishant Sharma, Anrich Nortje, Axar Patel, and Mitchell Marsh, faced the bazooka of a bat as the ball disappeared to all corners of the ground. The Caribbean reached 85 from only 39 balls at a staggering strike rate of 217.95. Narine seemed to be playing with Delhi like a cat keeping a half-dead mouse alive for its own share of entertainment.

A hapless captain Rishabh Pant had to turn to the gentle medium pace of Khaleel Ahmed. Narine milked him for 15 in the latter's second over before Sharma was clobbered for three sixes and two fours in a single over - an annihilation almost poetic in its symmetry.

In all the carnage, Narine aimed for a million.

"To start off, it was tough, there was a lot of swing. Once you made contact with one or two balls, everything came a little easier. It was nice to do it in front of the big boss (Shahrukh Khan). You have those days when everything clicks," said Narine, beaming at his partner-in-carnage Andre Russell.

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The Vizag crowd had swayed to every swing of his bat on Wednesday. As the overs ticked by and the scoreboard ticked over, it became clear that this was no ordinary innings. But the most pointed roar was reserved for when he trudged back to the dugout, prompting everyone in attendance to unanimously rise to their feet in a standing ovation.

"It shows how much he enjoys his batting. As a youngster, he was a batter and used to bowl a little seam. Over time, he developed these magical deliveries and worked hard on them. But he gets so much joy out of his batting. Growing up, his hero was Brian Lara. Lara would be happy with some of the shots played by Narine this evening," England's World Cup-winning skipper Eoin Morgan said about Narine.

The outcome was almost inconsequential. What mattered was the spectacle that had unfolded before one's eyes, a reminder of the magic and majesty that cricket, at its best, is capable of producing.

It was a day that would be remembered and cherished by all who were fortunate enough to bear witness to it, a day when the cricketing world stood still and marvelled at the power of the willow. The result may have been predetermined on many levels but the echoes of Narine's strokes will reverberate across the stadium for a little longer than usual.