On a slow wicket in Sharjah, Royal Challengers Bangalore posted a paltry 138 for 7 in their 20 overs.
139 was always going to be chaseable for the Kolkata Knight Riders provided they got off to a good start and got off to a strong start they did!
After KKR Openers Shubman Gill (29) and Venkatesh Iyer (26) set up the platform for the run chase, RCB Captain Virat Kohli brought in his main bowler Harshal Patel who first dismissed Gill before Yuzvendra Chahal trapped Rahul Tripathi LBW for 6.
KKR slid from 40-0 in 5 overs to 79 for 3 after Harshal struck again to take out Venky Iyer who was livng dangerously, getting a couple of reprieves.
Just when it looked like RCB were back in the game, Sunil Narine, who had done the job with the ball (4 for 21), came out to bat and wasted no time to get going and tilt the momentum back in KKR's favour,
He smashed Dan Christian for three back-to-back sixes to drop KKR's required run rate and put the pressure back on RCB.
That 22-run over brought the equation down and even though Mohammed Siraj dismissed Narine and Dinesh Karthik in the 18th over to run the game close, Shakib Al Hasan struck the winning runs in the final over with two balls to spare.
After his ace performance with the ball, Narine (26 off 15) did the star turn with the bat to snatch the match back from RCB and swing it in KKR's favour.
It was Narine's day and the Windies all-rounder showed us glimpses of yore to take his team into the 2nd qualifier.
KKR will hope that Narine carries his form into Wednesday's match against Delhi Capitals for a place in the final.
