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 in Lucknow on May 5.
It all started with Narine putting on a quickfire 61-run opening stand with Phil Salt after K.L. Rahul elected to field.
Narine started sedately as Salt peppered LSG’s new-ball bowlers with a flurry 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 fifty-plus partnership before Salt was caught behind off a slower one from Naveen-ul-Haq, much to the relief of a packed crowd.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi too joined in on the fun, with the KKR No. 3 crunching some crisp drives on the off side.
Only Yash Thakur managed to get in a boundary-less over in PowerPlay as the visitor piled on 70 runs in the opening phase.
The end of fielding 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 86-metre six. The left-handed batter got to his fifty with a delicate late-cut four against leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi.
The 35-year-old was brutal when LSG 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 had touched the boundary line, a few deliveries earlier, with the ball in his hand after a similar mishit.
Narine’s dismissal revitalised LSG as the home bowlers, aided by some good fielding, reigned in KKR’s run-rate.
But a six-ball 25 from Ramandeep Singh in the death ensured that KKR finished on a high as it breached the 220-run mark for the fifth time this season.
Scoreboard
Kolkata Knight Riders: Phil Salt c Rahul b Naveen-ul-Haq 32 Sunil Narine c sub b Ravi Bishnoi 81 Angkrish Raghuvanshi c Rahul b Yudhvir Singh 32 Andre Russell c sub b Naveen-ul-Haq 12 Rinku Singh c Stoinis b Naveen-ul-Haq 16 Shreyas Iyer c Rahul b Yash Thakur 23 Ramandeep Singh not out 25 Venkatesh Iyer not out 1 Extras: (W-13) 13
Total: (For 6 wickets in 20 overs) 235
Fall of wickets: 1/61 2/140 3/167 4/171 5/200 6/224
Lucknow Super Giants bowling: Marcus Stoinis 2-0-29-0, Mohsin Khan 2-0-28-0, Naveen-ul-Haq 4-0-49-3, Yash Thakur 4-0-46-1, Krunal Pandya 2-0-26-0, Ravi Bishnoi 4-0-33-1, Yudhvir Singh 2-0-24-1.
