Watch: Sunil Narine shockingly escapes hit-wicket dismissal despite smashing stumps in KKR vs RCB clash

A shocking incident unfolded during the opening match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 between the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).

The 36-year-old Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) star all-rounder Sunil Narine escaped a hit-wicket dismissal despite hitting the stumps with his bat at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday, March 22.

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Sunil Narine escapes getting out hit-wicket

The incident happened in the 8th over of the first innings when the 24-year-old pacer Rasikh Salam was bowling to Sunil Narine.

On the fourth ball of the over, Salam went round the wicket and fired a bouncer just outside off-stump to Narine, who simply let the delivery pass.

The on-field umpire instantly declared it a wide, and as Narine finished his half-hearted bat swing, the toe end of his bat hit the stumps, with one of the bails coming off. However, surprisingly the umpires didn't give it out.

The reason behind the umpires' move could be that the ball was dead as the decision of wide was already made before Narine's bat made contact with the stumps.

Watch: Sunil Narine shockingly escapes hit-wicket dismissal despite smashing stumps

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Narine finished with the innings of 44 runs of 26 balls, with 5 fours and 3 sixes, before being dismissed by Rasikh Salam on the 6th ball of the 10th over. The Kolkata Knight Riders, meanwhile, despite a great start, only managed to post 174/8 on the board.

Sunil Narine named biggest threat for RCB

Speaking ahead of the match, the former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra labeled Sunil Narine as the biggest threat for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League 2025 opener.

Aakash Chopra highlighted the performance of Narine from last year, where he finished as the leading run-getter for Kolkata Knight Riders, and said that the all-rounder was the main man behind the success of the franchise.

Chopra added that Narine showcased impactful performances with the bat both in the powerplay after the 6 overs before contributing sensationally with the ball, which made him unstoppable.

"Sunil Narine the opener. He will bowl four good overs, but how it goes for him with the bat. If you try to find last year's one defining factor, as to how KKR turned everything around, it was Sunil Narine's performance. He scored a century with the bat and then an eighty as well," he said.

"Consistently he was batting outside the powerplay overs, which means he was batting deep into the T20 innings, and he was scoring a lot of runs. No one was able to figure out a way to stop him, and that changed everything. He allowed everyone to go helter-skelter. If you want to give Sunil Narine a long rope, he needs to score runs," he added.