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Narine headlines KKR's 106-run victory over Delhi Capitals

cricket03 April 2024 18:06| © MWP
By:Neil Manthorp
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Sunil Narine © PhotoShelter

Sunil Narine smashed a career best 85 from just 39 balls to lead the Kolkata Knight Riders to a daunting total of 272-7 and a colossal 106-run victory in their IPL game against the Delhi Capitals at the DR YS Rajasekhara Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.

Rishabh Pant (55) and Tristan Stubbs (54) rescued Delhi from potential humiliation at 33-4 but they were dismissed for just 166 to concede a massive defeat.

Trinidadian spinner Narine opened the batting and raced to a remarkable 52 from just 21 balls to help KKR post the highest Power Play score of the season with 88-1 after the loss of fellow opener Phil Salt (18 off 12) who chipped Anrich Nortje to mid on.

Narine maintained a brutal assault throughout his innings taking 26 runs off the second over from Ishant Sharma (2-43) and another 18 off the solitary over from spinner Axar Patel who has been Delhi’s most economical bowler in their first three games.

Straight driving, hooking and slap-driving through the covers brought Narine seven fours and seven sixes before finally thin-edging a bouncer from Mitch Marsh into the gloves of a bewildered DC captain, Rishabh Pant.

Remarkably, Narine’s first run – a single – came from his sixth ball faced.

Eighteen-year-old Angrish Raghuvanshi batted beautifully on his IPL debut reaching 54 from only 27 balls (5x4, 3x6) with a combination of classic shots and reverse innovation before ramping a Nortje bouncer straight into the hands of Ishant just inside the third man boundary.

But Delhi’s pain was far from over with the promotion of Jamaican Andre Russell to No 4.

The big man was quickly into his work powering his way to 41 from a mere 19 deliveries (4x4, 3x6) with savage hitting on a perfect pitch in a small stadium.

Captain Shreyas Iyer struck two sixes of his own in a brief 18 from 11 balls before Rinku Singh (26 of eight balls) smashed the unfortunate Nortje (3-59) for three sixes in his final over which cost an eye-watering 25 before he chipped the final ball of the 19th over to mid on.

Pace bowler Vaibhav Arora (4-0-27-3) and legspinner Varun Chakaravarthy (3-33) dismantled the Delhi run-chase giving the Knight Riders three consecutive victories at the start of an IPL for the first time in the league’s 17th season.

DELHI CAPITALS: Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant (captain/wkt), Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Sumit Kumar, Rasikh Dar Salam, Anrich Nortje, Ishant Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Philip Salt (wkt), Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy

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