Sunil Narine can do no wrong this IPL season.
On Sunday, at the Ekana Stadium, his Midas touch powered Kolkata Knight Riders to the top of the standings following a thumping 98-run win against Lucknow Super Giants.
Narine laid the foundation for KKR’s victory with a blistering 39-ball 81 in the first innings, before returning figures of one for 22 in his four overs to shut LSG down and push it outside the top four in the points table.
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 the field with a flurry of boundaries. The left-handed batter opened up soon by smashing left-arm pacer Mohsin Khan for three fours and a six in the fourth over.
The KKR opening duo raced to its sixth fifty-plus partnership of the season before Salt was caught behind off a slower one from Naveen-ul-Haq. Narine, though, persisted with his swinging blade as he took on the spinners. When Krunal Pandya pitched it up, the ball was launched over mid-wicket, while leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi was delicately cut away for a four.
The 35-year-old was brutal when LSG pacers went full as he cleared his front foot before launching them over the leg-side fence. Narine’s whirlwind knock ended on 81 after he mistimed a quicker one from Bishnoi straight to Devdutt Padikkal at long off.
Despite a few quick wickets, KKR finished on a high thanks to a six-ball 25 from Ramandeep Singh as it breached the 220-run mark for the fifth time this season. LSG’s riposte was measured, if not hurried, to start with. But KKR’s bowlers held their ground with a regular flow of wickets.
While Rahul was sent back by right-arm pacer Harshit Rana, Andre Russell accounted for the in-form middle-order duo of Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran.
The rest of the home batting lineup folded quickly as KKR completed the season double over LSG in a crushing manner.
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.
Lucknow Super Giants batting: KL Rahul c Ramandeep Singh b Harshit Rana 25 Arshin Kulkarni c Ramandeep Singh b Starc 9 Marcus Stoinis c Harshit Rana b Russell 36 Deepak Hoodalbw b Chakaravarthy 5 Nicholas Pooran c Salt b Russell 10 Ayush Badoni c Starc b Narine 15 Ashton Turner c and b Chakaravarthy 16 Krunal Pandya c Salt b Harshit Rana 5 Yudhvir Singh Charak c Russell b Chakaravarthy 7 Ravi Bishnoi lbw b Harshit Rana 2 Naveen-ul-Haq not out 0 Extras: (LB-1, W-6) 7
Total: (All out in 16.1 Overs) 137
Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-70, 3-77, 4-85, 5-101, 6-109, 7-125, 8-129, 9-137, 10-137.
Bowling: Vaibhav Arora 2-0-21-0, Mitchell Starc 2-0-22-1, Sunil Narine 4-0-22-1, Harshit Rana 3.1-0-24- 3, Varun Chakravarthy 3-0-30-3, Andre Russell 2-0-17- 2.
