SCOREBOARD
Sunil Narine continued his Midas touch with the bat in IPL 2024 as his blistering 39-ball 81 powered Kolkata Knight Riders to 235 for six against Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Stadium here on Sunday.
It all started with Narine putting on a quickre 61run opening stand with Phil Salt after K.L. Rahul elected to eld.
Narine started sedately as Salt peppered the eld with a urry of boundaries from the other end. But soon enough, the West Indian batter opened up as he thumped Mohsin Khan for three fours and a six in the fourth over of the game.
The KKR opening duo raced to its sixth fty-plus partnership before Salt was caught behind o a slower one from Naveenul-Haq, much to the relief of a packed crowd.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi too joined in on the onslaught, with the KKR No. 3 crunching some crisp drives on the o side.
Only Yash Thakur managed to get in a boundaryless over in PowerPlay as the visitor piled on 70 runs in the opening phase.
The end of elding restrictions did nothing to deter Narine as he took on the LSG spinners. When Krunal Pandya pitched it up, the ball was whacked over mid-wicket for an 86metre six. The left-handed batter got to his fty with a delicate late-cut four against leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi.
The 35-year-old was brutal when LSG’s pacers pitched it up as he launched them over the fence with a cleared front foot. Marcus Stoinis was at the receiving end of three such maximums as the West Indian pressed on.
Narine’s whirlwind knock ended on 81 after he mistimed a quicker one from Bishnoi to a relieved Devdutt Padikkal – who
Narine was at his explosive best.
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS
Phil Salt c Rahul b Naveen 32
(14b, 5x4, 1x6), Sunil Narine c sub (Padikkal) b Bishnoi 81 (39b, 6x4, 7x6), Angkrish Raghuvanshi c Rahul b Yudhvir 32 (26b, 3x4, 1x6), Andre Russell c sub (Gowtham) b Naveen 12 (8b, 1x4, 1x6), Rinku Singh c Stoinis b Naveen 16 (11b, 2x4), Shreyas Iyer c Rahul b Yash 23 (15b, 3x4), Ramandeep Singh (not out) 25
(6b, 1x4, 3x6), Venkatesh Iyer (not out) 1 (1b); Extras (w-13): 13; Totals (for six wkts. in 20 overs): 235
FALL OF WICKETS
1-61 (Salt, 4.2 overs), 2-140 (Narine, 11.6), 3-167 (Russell, 14.2), 4-171 (Raghuvanshi, 15.1) 5-200 (Rinku, 17.6), 6-224 (Shreyas, 19.3)
SUPER GIANTS BOWLING
Stoinis 2-0-29-0, Mohsin 2-0-28-0, Naveen 4-0-49-3, Yash Thakur 4-0-46-1, Krunal Pandya 2-0-26-0, Bishnoi 4-0-33-1, Yudhvir (Concussion Substitute for Mohsin) 2-0-24-1.
Toss: LSG.