Knight Riders’ batters bludgeon the DC attack
After Narine’s fireworks, Raghuvanshi, Russell and Rinku play with gay abandon to send the host’s bowlers on a leather hunt as Kolkata posts a humongous score
Sunil Narine topscored with 85 (39b, 7x4, 7x6) as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) took apart Delhi Capitals’ (DC) bowling like cotton candy to post 272 for seven at the Dr. YSR ACAVDCA cricket stadium here on Wednesday.
Narine batted in stark contrast to his opening partner Phil Salt. With the nonchalance of, say, Deadpool or Han Solo, Narine swatted sixes and fours as if sadistically driving away mosquitoes.
On the other hand, Salt, one of the hardest hitters of the ball in modern cricket, clubbed the ball as hard as Thor would hammer anything.
While Salt hit two consecutive fours in Ishant Sharma’s first over, a loft over covers and a slash past the short third man, Narine hit three sixes and two fours in his second. He launched a six over long off, pulled one to the deep square leg boundary, and sliced one to the extra cover boundary. Thereafter, he punished every single bowler who bowled at him.
Fortunate start
Salt was fortunate that his outside edge went through wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant’s hands for four on the first ball of the match delivered by Khaleel
Ahmed. The umpire mistakenly deemed it four byes. But the bounce on view for the first few balls turned out to be an aberration, just like the swing Khaleel got in the previous match versus Chennai Super Kings. On Wednesday, there was a negligible swing on view.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi, meanwhile, was methodically violent. He was Virat Kohlilike with his cover drive and pull to the deep midwicket boundary.
Yet, as if in a fit of temper, he reversehit Rasikh Salam for six. He hit two more sixes off Sumit Kumar and Rasikh to the deep midwicket boundary.
The 18yearold had begun his innings with a pull and a punch beyond the point fielder for backtoback fours off Anrich Nortje.
For the rest of the innings, KKR was in a world of funhouse mirrors as Andre Russell and Rinku Singh burned the DC ‘house of hope’ down to cinders.