Mediaboss Marketing

Whats the story?

With rain almost playing spoilsport, the match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders went until the wee hours of Thursday morning. The cut-off rulethat allowed the game to be played till 1:30 amwas lambasted by Nathan Coulter-Nile, the star for the KKR side.

KKR pacer Coulter-Nile brought it to light thata nasty concussion sidelined him for the latter stages of the regular season in the IPL, after the player-of-the-match performance in the eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

In the match against Rising Pune Supergiant, Coulter-Nile was welcomed to the crease with an icky blow on the grillfrom a Dan Christian short ball and did not play the following three games as he was diagnosed with a concussion.

Also read:IPL 2017, Eliminator: SRH vs KKR, Player Ratings

Speaking of the match going on till late, he said: I think there is so much time, rules probably need to be looked at, I mean its 2 am, you cant be playing cricket at 2 oclock.

When asked about how things went for him post that game, he said, "It was a tough one, I'd never had a concussion before so I didn't know what to expect or what was going on."

"I was just really tired, headaches, I got a bit sick but there wasn't rehab or anything like that, I just had to lay in bed and wait to get right. I wasn't playing this morning, but I woke up and felt pretty good so I put my hand up for selection and the coaching staff went with me.

Coulter-Nile has been through an injury-plagued few years, the concussion being the latest intrusion. In his first IPL match this season against Daredevils, his figures were 3-22, which was his first spirited performance in almost a year.

The fast bowler had not been able to cement himself in Australias playing XI when they toured Sri Lanka and was mostly confined to training tracks during the Tests. He was sent home during the ODI series of the same tour as he was diagnosed with what was a bone stress fracture.

Against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, Coulter-Nile picked up three wickets, restricting them to 128, which after rain, revised KKRs target to 48 off six overs.

Coulter-Niles appearance for KKR in the eliminator was his first since theirloss to RPS in early May. It was a timely return for the pacer, who came back making a statement, taking 3-20.

He bagged the wickets of crucial players, Kane Williamson and Vijay Shankar. Not only was he handy with the ball but also showed how good an athlete he was by taking a stunning diving catch in his follow-through dismissing Chris Jordan.

He considers himself a tad bit lucky for he claims most of the credit for the wickets he grabbed goes to the pitch since the wicket wasntone where batsman could hit freely.

After outperforming the Sunrisers in the Eliminator, the Knight Riders will be facing the Mumbai Indians in the 2nd Qualifier at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on the 19th of May. Coulter-Nile will be the aggressor with the ball for KKR and will be hoping to continue in the supreme form that he is in at present.

It indeed has been abumpy year or so for Coulter-Nile. However, his return has been exemplaryand he will be hoping the rough patch has passed him by. The KKR skipper, Gautam Gambhir and the team management including Coulter-Nile in the playing XI after he said he was well and up for the tie hours before the game commencedonly goes to show how much they needed the talented bowler for the knockout game.

Considering his present form, a clinical performance is expected from the speedster in the game(s) ahead for the Knight Riders.

Read more from the original source:
IPL 2017: KKR's eliminator hero Nathan Coulter-Nile not amused by cut-off rule - Yahoo Cricket