Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) [India]: Following his side’s 106-run win over Delhi Capitals (DC), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bowling all-rounder Sunil Narine, who cracked a match-winning half-century, said that he faced a lot of swing during the start of his inning and batting was difficult.
Narine was the tormentor-in-chief as his pyrotechnic-filled 85 in 39 balls helped Kolkata post 272/7, the second-highest total in IPL history, which they defended despite half-centuries from DC skipper Rishabh Pant and Tristan Stubbs. DC was bundled out for 166 runs and lost the game held at Visakhapatnam by 106 runs.
Speaking in a video posted by the IPL’s official X handle, Narine said to his partner-in-carnage Andre Russell, “To start off, it was tough, there was a lot of swing. Once you made contact with one or two balls, everything came a little easier. It was nice to do it in front of the big boss (Shahrukh Khan). You have those days when everything clicks.”
Russell said that Narine gave him nice motivation to go straight after bowlers from ball one, but he took some time to settle.
“You gave me a good motivation to start off smashing everything, I took some deliveries to see what is going on and to pick the pace of the wicket. But seeing you hitting the ball, I was like okay, I was happy that Gambhir gave me that opportunity. The most important thing is we won by 100+ runs, good for our net-run-rate,” said Russell.
Coming to yesterday’s match, with explosive knocks from Sunil Narine (85 in 39 balls, with seven fours and seven sixes), the 18-year-old Angkrish Raghuvanshi (54 in 27 balls, with five fours and three sixes) and cameos from Andre Russell (41 in 19 balls, with four boundaries and three sixes) and Rinku Singh (26 in eight balls, with one four and three sixes) took the two-time champions to 272/7 in 20 overs.
Anrich Nortje (3/59) was the pick of the bowlers for DC, but leaked a lot of runs. Ishant Sharma (2/43) was also solid with the ball. Khaleel Ahmed and Mitchell Marsh took a wicket each.
In the run-chase, DC sunk to 33/4. A 93-run partnership between skipper Rishabh (55 in 25 balls, with four boundaries and five sixes) and Tristan Stubbs (54 in 32 balls, with four boundaries and four sixes) helped DC put up a brief fight and provide some entertainment to their fans, but they were skittled out for 166 in 17.2 overs.
Vaibhav Arora (3/27) and Varun Chakravarthy (3/33) were the pick of the bowlers for KKR. Mitchell Starc also picked up 2/25 in three overs. Andre Russell and Sunil Narine took a wicket each.
Narine won the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his fifty. KKR is at the top, having won all their three games and getting six points. DC is in the ninth spot with one win and three losses, giving them two points.
