Sunil Narine didn't even bat an eye lid.
The ball had just whooshed past Salil Arora's tentative prod, clipping the top of off and etching a piece of history along the way. It was Narine's 200th IPL wicket - a landmark no overseas bowler had reached before.
A special ball for a special milestone. But Narine's face, as ever, revealed not even an iota of glee. No fist pump, no roar, not even a glance up to the giant screen to admire the replay of a ball he would've no doubt been proud of. It was just another delivery in his world of wizardry.
Over the years with Narine, it has never been about the plethora of variations he has up his sleeve. It's rather about how little he reveals before delivering them.
On paper, there shouldn't be much mystery left. For 15 IPL seasons, batters have tried to dissect him through replays, slow-motion footage, studying his palm, looking at match-ups and the numbers along with his angles, speeds, length… there's no aspect that hasn't been thoroughly analysed.
Yet, when the ball hits the surface and grips just enough to turn the other way, when the length is fractionally pulled back or the ball is pushed through quicker, that sense of assurance gives way to diffidence as best-laid plans often unravel. The only constant is Narine's poker face. Over the years, captains have given up trying to get him to cheer up for his own wickets.
Even the set Ishan Kishan, who was picking lengths in a jiffy, found himself caught in this space between knowing what he wants to do but still not being able to counter it. Narine anticipated Kishan giving him the charge, and angled it across. Kishan didn't account for the dip, and ended up slicing a catch to long-off.
There was a time not too long ago when Narine was simply the enigma in the middle overs, the bankable four-overs bowler whom captains unfailingly used like a cheat code. Batters couldn't line him up, and simply looked to play him out.
These days, the only real uncertainty prior to a game about Narine lies in how his captain uses him. Because there has been no specific pattern. New-ball bowler in the powerplay, like he did against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday; middle-overs chokehold like he has done for much of his IPL career; or Super Over trump card, like he did in the win over Lucknow Super Giants. Opening batter. Pinch-hitter. Just too many roles to count.
And over the years, Narine has been all of it, sometimes within the same match. And it's this aspect that has made him indispensable to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in a way few players have been to any franchise. Fifteen seasons on, they still turn to him as the problem-solver, the ace spinner along with Varun Chakravarthy, who is trying to bounce back from a dip in form.
When things begin to slip away, Narine is summoned. When they need control, Narine is called in. When they need to bowl the first over against a marauding opening pair of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, by far the most destructive in the competition in terms of numbers, enter Narine again.
His journey over the years has been anything but smooth. Questions have followed him through his career. About his action, which he has had to remodel more than once. About his longevity, as the mystery once supposedly wore thin. About his relevance in a format that has relentlessly moved forward in this Impact Player era. Each time, Narine has responded the only way he knows how: by adapting and putting in a performance.
He has, over the years, varied his speeds, reworked his lengths to suit different surfaces, and embraced unfamiliar roles. And perhaps that's why even 200 wickets feels routine.
On Sunday against Head and Abhishek, Narine began with a reminder of cricket's inherent risk. He was tonked by Abhishek over wide long-on in his very first over. But there was no change in expression. No visible change in his mindset. Just a subtle shift in length, a touch slower to get the dip going.
His face remained unreadable through it all. Narine's first two wicketless overs cost 20, yet he finished with figures of 2 for 31 in four, along the way playing his own sweet role in orchestrating an epic SRH collapse - they lost 8 for 48 after being 117 for 2 in the 11th over.
What he has done, across a decade and a half, is build one of the most remarkable IPL careers. His numbers are a testament to his longevity, consistency and an ability to stay relevant in a format designed to expose and discard.
For KKR, these performances have been timely. Their season threatened to unravel at the halfway mark. In 2024, no team managed to bounce back like RCB did, after starting with just one win in eight games. They then went on a bull run of six straight wins to make the playoffs.
KKR, winners that year, are in a similar position in 2026. And from being at rock bottom, they've now conjured three back-to-back wins. Narine has played key roles in each of those, even if a routine glance at those scorecards won't have his name screaming at you.
Perhaps it was meant to be this way, because Narine likes it no other way.