Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder Sunil Narine was delighted as they hammered Delhi Capitals by 106 runs at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam on Wednesday. After Shreyas Iyer won the toss and decided to bat on a batting paradise, Sunil Narine did what he does best.
Narine smashed Ishant Sharma for 26 runs in the fourth over and it was just a trailer of what was to come. The left-hander completed his fifty off just 21 balls as KKR scored 88 runs in the Powerplay overs.
Narine found great support from the other end as debutant Angkrish Raghuvanshi scored 54 runs from 27 balls. The left-hander scored 85, which is his highest score in the IPL, and added 104 runs with the 18-year-old youngster for the second wicket.
Subsequently, Andre Russell smashed 41 runs from 19 balls whereas Rinku Singh played a fine little cameo of 8-ball 26 to help KKR post 272 – the second highest score in IPL history.
On the other hand, Vaibhav Arora and Varun Chakravarthy scalped three wickets each in their spell whereas Mitchell Starc picked up two wickets.
Furthermore, Narine returned with impressive figures of 1-29 in his quota of four overs.
Sunil Narine said in the post-match presentation after he was adjudged Player of the Match for his fine performance, “Cricket is all about batting, so to contribute with the bat is pleasing but I also enjoy my bowling. (On batting down the order with Abu Dhabi Knight Riders) We had sufficient batters, so the opening was not needed then.”
He added, “At the end of the day, it is about what the team requires. Batting with Salt is good, he takes the pressure off me so it’s good to bat with him. On a good wicket like that, we bowled well and were on the money, so a total team effort from us tonight.”
KKR will next take on Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Monday.
