If Bhanuka Rajapaksa’s stepping out to demolish the dangerous Sunil Narine at Mohali evoked a sense of disbelief  last Saturday, so was Shardul Thakur’s breath-taking counterattack that set up Kolkata Knight Riders’ 81-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Eden Gardens on Thursday. Blame it on the nature of the beast, where bold is often beautiful.

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As if to drive home the point, Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis, so authoritative in the 148-run partnership that shut out Mumbai Indians last Sunday, were denied a significant role this day as ‘mystery’ spinners Narine and Varun Chakravarthy polished off the top order to peg back RCB’s chase of 205. Chakravarthy ended up with 4 for 15 and Narine had 2 for 16 in his four overs.