KKR vs RR: Sunil Narine smashes first career T20 century, third Kolkata Knight Riders batter to record ton

Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder Sunil Narine smashed the first century of his prolific T20 career during the IPL 2024 match against Rajasthan Royals at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Tuesday.

Narine clobbered a scintillating 49-ball ton which eventually ended on 109 off 56 balls, with 13 fours and six sixes. Narine’s onslaught powered KKR to 223 for six in 20 overs after being sent into bat by Rajasthan.

Narine became only the third KKR batter to score a hundred after Brendon Mccullum and Venkatesh Iyer. Mccullum’s 158 came in the inaugural match of the IPL against Royal Challengers Bengaluru before it took 13 more seasons before KKR witnessed their second individual hundred.

KKR vs RR Live Score, IPL 2024

Narine, who returned to the opening slot after a brief haul in the IPL, entered the top 3 of the leading batters in the Orange Cap list for the season.  In a clash against Delhi Capitals, Narine had bettered his career-best score to 85 at Visakhapatnam. Narine also reached the milestone of 500 T20 matches during the season.

Narine’s whirlwind hundred also took him past 4000 runs in T20 cricket, over 1300 of which have come in the IPL since 2012 at a staggering 165.16 strike rate.  Interestingly, Narine boasts of the highest IPL batting strike-rate in the PowerPlay among all batters to have scored at least 200 runs in the phase. 821 of Narine’s career IPL runs have come in the PowerPlay at a 173.94 strike rate.

The 35-year-old offspinner has picked up 168 wickets for KKR in 168 matches at an economy rate of 6.73 and average of 25.82 – the second-most for a bowler for a single franchise in the IPL.

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