When the going gets tough in the IPL, there are no shortage of stars available to lead Kolkata Knight Riders forward.
They have the reigning World Cup-winning captain, Eoin Morgan.
They have the $2 million man, Pat Cummins, who fetched the highest price of anyone at auction ahead of this season.
In normal circumstances, they would have Andre Russell, too – when fitness permits him onto the field.
And their fixture against Delhi Capitals at Zayed Cricket Stadium on Saturday represented genuine high stakes.
Win, and they would be well placed to advance to the knock-out phase of the competition. Lose, and they would be dragged into a fight for qualification, with confidence spiralling downwards.
At 42-3 in the eighth over, they were on the brink. Then they were not so much rescued from the mire as powered to victory by three unexpected sources.
One who was mourning the death of his father-in-law. Another who was coming back from another career-threatening personal crisis. And the third who only turned to cricket as he was struggling to make ends meet as an architect.
First, Sunil Narine blazed his way back to happiness, making 64 in 32 balls, after returning to the side having had doubts over his bowling action flare up again.
Narine joined in a rousing alliance with Nitish Rana, the uncapped Indian left-hander, that was worth 115 in 59 balls.
Rana, for his part, made 81, his highest score of the tournament so far.
When he reached 50, the 12th man brought out a shirt for him to raise that had “Surinder” inscribed on the back.
It was to honour his father-in-law, Surinder Marwah, who died on Friday.
“Watching both of them play with the freedom that they did was outstanding,” Morgan said.
“We felt Nitish was in good form, if a little bit light on runs. Nitish is a very talented young batsman. He has showed a lot of promise in previous IPLs.
“This year, admittedly, he has probably not scored as many runs as he would like to. Hopefully this can be the start of his campaign kicking things forward.
“It showed unbelievable character to come through adversity, especially when it is family based. We all know what Nitish was going through.
“He is continuing to grieve at the moment, but he is trying to channel that. Churning out runs like he did is a huge credit to him.”
The Narine-Rana stand was the centrepiece of Kolkata’s total of 194-6.
Delhi were not able to get close, with Cummins firing out three, and Varun Chakravarthy picking up the first five wicket haul of this season.
It was the finest moment yet for a spin bowler who gave up a career as a freelance architect to try his hand at cricket instead.
“Around 2015 when I was not making much money as an architect, I thought I will try something else when I wasn't able to meet my needs,” Chakravarthy said, after picking up the man of the match award for his 5-20.
Victory kept a cushion between Kolkata in fourth place in the table, and the sides chasing.
Delhi, who were outplayed as they finished 59 runs adrift, remained well placed in second in the table, but Kagiso Rabada said it was a warning shot.
“Whenever you lose, it is a concern,” said Rabada, who took his tally for the season to 23 wickets, after picking up two more against Kolkata.
“We started off the competition really well and set ourselves up nicely. We need to win one more match, and we qualify.
“It is just the nature of this tournament. It is quality versus quality, and any team can rock up on the day.
“We have been playing some good cricket, and we need to emphasise what we have been doing really well, and analyse the few points where we have let the game slip away.”
