Sunil Narine was in sizzling batting form on Sunday, as he led Kolkata Knight Riders to a 98-run win against Lucknow Super Giants, in their IPL 2024 fixture on Sunday. Opening the batting with Phil Salt, Narine clobbered 81 runs off 39 balls, packed with six fours and seven sixes. Meanwhile, Salt (32) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (32) also played key knocks as KKR posted 235/6 in 20 overs.
Chasing 236, Lucknow Super Giants folded for 137 in 16.1 overs, courtesy of three-wicket hauls from Harshit Rana and Varun Chakaravarthy respectively. Speaking after the match, LSG pacer Naveen-ul-Haq hailed Narine's batting approach. The former West Indies cricketer and Salt gave KKR a strong start, scoring 60 runs in four overs. After Salt's dismissal, Narine's blitz continued.
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"We planned against Narine. We wanted to mix it up with bouncers and yorkers but nothing worked against him. It was quite a brilliant innings, to be honest. He was properly middling it. He has been doing it from the start of the season," he said.
"The amount of games that we have played in Lucknow, I think this was the best wicket to bat on. We did not do the things in the chase that we did - say in the game at Chepauk, where the target was very high. It was not like bad or anything, there was nothing for the bowlers.
{{/usCountry}}"The amount of games that we have played in Lucknow, I think this was the best wicket to bat on. We did not do the things in the chase that we did - say in the game at Chepauk, where the target was very high. It was not like bad or anything, there was nothing for the bowlers.
{{/usCountry}}"Pressure is always there on whatever score you are chasing. Every team has a bad day, and we cannot keep focusing on that, we have to move on," he further added.
Narine is currently third in the IPL 2024 Orange Cap race, slamming 461 runs in 11 matches at a strike rate of 183.66. In the bowling front, he is sixth in the Purple Cap race with 14 dismissals, at an economy of 6.61.