Bouncers, yorkers, nothing worked against Sunil Narine: Naveen-ul-Haq lauds the KKR opener

Sunil Narine was the pick of the batters for the Kolkata Knight Riders once again as the two-time champions handed a 98-run drubbing of the Lucknow Super Giants to move to the top of the points table.

The southpaw scored 81 runs off a mere 39 deliveries, lacing six fours and seven maximums during his innings. Such was the impact from the former West Indies international that LSG pacer Naveen-ul-Haq even admitted that nothing they tried against the KKR opener worked on the night.

“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 post-match.

SAILING AWAY ⛵️

Sunil Narine’s fabulous run continues with another stroke full FIFTY 💥

He also crosses the 4️⃣0️⃣0️⃣- run mark for the first time in #TATAIPL 👏👏

Watch the match LIVE on @JioCinema and @StarSportsIndia 💻📱#LSGvKKR | @KKRiders pic.twitter.com/Iw1aeFz9nQ

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 5, 2024

From 11 games this season, Narine has amassed 461 runs at a strike rate of 183.66 that includes a century and three fifties to his name. The 35-year-old is third in the tally for most runs this season.

While KKR posted 235/6 on the night, thanks to the fifty from Narine followed by quickfire contributions from Shreyas Iyer and Ramandeep Singh, LSG were restricted for 137 from 16.1 overs. While Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy snapped three wickets each, Andre Russell struck twice in the defence.

The Afghan pacer admitted that it was the best batting wicket Lucknow have played at this season at the Ekana International Stadium. “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,” he said.

“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 added.

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With their fifth defeat of the season, LSG have now slipped to fifth spot in the 10-team points table with three league games left to be played.

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