Sunil Narine’s incredible run with the bat continued in IPL 2024 as he scored his maiden hundred in the competition during the match against RR on April 16, Tuesday.
Narine returned to the top of the order since Gautam Gambhir returned to the side as the mentor and the move had already seen big results in the previous matches. Narine scored 85 when KKR scored 272 against DC and an entertaining 47 against RCB.
He would turn up with the bat yet again for KKR on Tuesday as he scored his hundred off just 49 balls against a RR side, who have been very disciplined with their bowling. The West Indies all-rounder’s innings consisted of 11 boundaries and 6 sixes as Kolkata batters would put Rajasthan bowlers to the sword. With the knock, Narine became only the third KKR batter to score a hundred in IPL after Brendon McCullum and Venkatesh Iyer.
How did Narine’s innings unfold?
Narine had a really timid start on the day as KKR would only score 26 runs in their first 4 overs of the powerplay. Kolkata would lose Phil Salt early thanks to a brilliant catch from Avesh Khan, who had a unique celebration after that.
Angrkrish Raghuvanshi joined Narine in the middle and would give the innings the much-needed momentum with three boundaries off Trent Boult. The duo got 30 runs in the last two overs of the powerplay and would carry on the form into the next 4 as KKR would race to 100 off just 10 overs.
Narine got to his fifty in just 29 balls and with a six off R Ashwin. The KKR star won the battle against Ashwin, as he hit him for plenty of runs. The third over by Ashwin went for 15 runs, as Narine hit a six and two boundaries.
Ashwin’s plan was to bowl outside off, but he kept either bowling too wide or right in the arc of Narine as RR looked confused with their plans against the opener. Ashwin went wicketless and conceded 49 runs in his 4 overs.
One of the hallmarks of Narine’s batting was to see him also be calculated with the way he attacked the RR spin duo of Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. Narine would get to his highest score with a six off Chahal. This was then followed by a boundary.
Narine wouldn’t stop as he continued to toy with Chahal and hit him for a six and boundary to get to his hundred. Narine would hit two more boundaries off Avesh and Boult before the New Zealand pacer cleaned him up to end his innings at 109 off just 56 balls.