By slamming a 19 ball 50 Sunil Narine, helped Kolkata Knight Riders to win over Royal Challengers Bangalore by 4 wickets. This was Knight Rider’s first match in the Indian Premium League season 11. The match was played in Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday.
The target for the Knight Riders, who were also the host team, was 177. Narine’s brilliant batting and skipper Dinesh Karthik’s 35 from 29 balls helped the home team to attain victory with 7 balls to spare.
Amongst the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers, Chris Woakes (3/36) and Umesh Yadav (2/27) shared five KKR wickets.
With a four and a six in the first two balls of the innings, Narine gave the hosts a blasting start in their run chase. His opening partner Lynn was dismissed in the second over itself by Woakes.
Narine reached 50 within only 17 balls as he hit consecutive sixes in the fifth over, of Sundar.
Narine hit five sixes and four boundaries in his 19-ball 50 and set the stage for a good fight back as the team scored 68 in the first six powerplay overs.
By hitting a six and a four off Khejroliya’s deliveries in the seventh over, Nitish Rana made sure that the teams run rate remained decent. Umesh dismissed Uthappa for 13 in the 8th over.
Then Rana and Karthik took knight riders closer to victory by adding a partnership of 55 runs for the fourth wicket
KKR were on 138/4 needing 39 more off 33 balls when Rana was trapped LBW by Sundar in the 15th over. Also, Umesh smacked two boundaries and a six in the 17th over to make the equation 15 of 18 balls and then finally the KKR team won in the 19th over with seven balls to spare.
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