CHENNAI: Sunil Narine’s century (109 off 56 balls) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s valuable 30 came in handy for KKR to post 223 for 6 in 20 overs against Rajasthan Royals on Tuesday.
Narine was, once again, at his aggressive best and paid scant respect for the Rajasthan bowlers. He was judicious in his shot selection, used his feet well and importantly was able to time the ball to a nicety. Rajasthan bowlers tried to contain him in spells but failed to do so as he was determined to see KKR post a challenging score.
Earlier, buoyed by the return of R Ashwin and Jos Buttler, Rajasthan opted to bowl. KKR began in earnest and when they were slowly trying to get familiar with the conditions, Phil Salt fell. After that, Sunil Narine forged a good partnership with Raghuvanshi and kept the scoreboard ticking. Narine is in good form and thus his confidence level is high. This has helped him choose the right delivery to assault.
Kuldeep Sen learnt the hard way as Narine carted a short ball from the Tamil Nadu speedster over mid wicket for a huge six, which had a lot of grace written over hit. Sanju Samson, in order to bring down the strike rate, brought in his experienced spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and R Ashwin. But it was of no use, Narine picked up boundaries at will of both Ashwin and Chahal. His six off Chahal that went straight over the bowler’s head for a huge six into the stands was the shot of the evening.
In the next over, a huge six off Ashwin ringed in Narine’s 50 and the team’s 100-run mark. His 50 came off 31 balls.
It looked like Rajasthan had exhausted all their plans for Narine the batter. The West Indies all-rounder could judge the length of the ball early and could pick boundaries through the gaps as he brought up his century in 49 balls. Once he fell for 106, Rinku Singh hit an unbeaten 20 off nine balls to take KKR to 223/6.
