Kolkata Knight Riders opener Sunil Narine plays a shot during the Indian Premier League 2024 match against Lucknow Super Giants in Lucknow on May 5, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Sandeep Saxena

Sunil Narine continued his Midas touch with the bat in IPL 2024 as his blistering 39-ball 81 powered Kolkata Knight Riders to 235 for six against Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on May 5.

It all started with Narine putting on a quickfire 61-run opening stand with Phil Salt after K.L. Rahul elected to field.

Narine started sedately as Salt peppered LSG’s new-ball bowlers with a flurry of boundaries from the other end. But soon enough, the West Indian batter opened up as he thumped Mohsin Khan for three fours and a six in the fourth over of the game.

The KKR opening duo raced to its sixth fifty-plus partnership before Salt was caught behind off a slower one from Naveen-ul-Haq, much to the relief of a packed crowd.

Angkrish Raghuvanshi too joined in on the fun, with the KKR No. 3 crunching some crisp drives on the off side.

Only Yash Thakur managed to get in a boundary-less over in PowerPlay as the visitor piled on 70 runs in the opening phase.

The end of fielding restrictions did nothing to deter Narine as he took on the LSG spinners. When Krunal Pandya pitched it up, the ball was whacked over mid-wicket for an 86-metre six. The left-handed batter got to his fifty with a delicate late-cut four against leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi.

The 35-year-old was brutal when LSG pacers pitched it up as he launched them over the fence with a cleared front foot. Marcus Stoinis was at the receiving end of three such maximums as the West Indian pressed on.

Narine’s whirlwind knock ended on 81 after he mistimed a quicker one from Bishnoi to a relieved Devdutt Padikkal – who had touched the boundary line, a few deliveries earlier, with the ball in his hand after a similar mishit.

Narine’s dismissal revitalised LSG as the home bowlers, aided by some good fielding, reigned in KKR’s run-rate.

But a six-ball 25 from Ramandeep Singh in the death ensured that KKR finished on a high as it breached the 220-run mark for the fifth time this season.

Scoreboard

Kolkata Knight Riders: Phil Salt c Rahul b Naveen-ul-Haq 32 Sunil Narine c sub b Ravi Bishnoi 81 Angkrish Raghuvanshi c Rahul b Yudhvir Singh 32 Andre Russell c sub b Naveen-ul-Haq 12 Rinku Singh c Stoinis b Naveen-ul-Haq 16 Shreyas Iyer c Rahul b Yash Thakur 23 Ramandeep Singh not out 25 Venkatesh Iyer not out 1 Extras: (W-13) 13

Total: (For 6 wickets in 20 overs) 235

Fall of wickets: 1/61 2/140 3/167 4/171 5/200 6/224

Lucknow Super Giants bowling: Marcus Stoinis 2-0-29-0, Mohsin Khan 2-0-28-0, Naveen-ul-Haq 4-0-49-3, Yash Thakur 4-0-46-1, Krunal Pandya 2-0-26-0, Ravi Bishnoi 4-0-33-1, Yudhvir Singh 2-0-24-1.

Lucknow Super Giants players celebrate during an Indian Premier League match. They will be facing a dominant Kolkata Knight Riders on May 5, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Sandeep Saxena

Lucknow Super Giants’ quest for a third consecutive IPL playoff berth continues as it hosts fellow top-four contender Kolkata Knight Riders at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on May 5.

Third-placed LSG will be the fresher of the two teams, having had a five-day break since its home win against Mumbai Indians.

The turnaround is much sharper for KKR, which ground out a rare away win against MI on Friday to move to second in the standings.

Sunday’s match-up between LSG and KKR will be a clash of contrasting approaches to T20 cricket. While the away side has adopted the high-risk, high-reward aggressive batting strategy, the home team has stuck to its relatively conservative template.

Super Giants’ relative languidness with the bat though has been enabled by its miserly bowling unit.

Super Giants will be without pacer Mayank Yadav, who is likely to miss the rest of the season due to an injury, as confirmed by head coach Justin Langer.

LSG’s frugality with the ball though has been helmed by its spin attack led by left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya and leggie Ravi Bishnoi.

KKR’s Sunil Narine has relished an incredible season with the bat and ball. Alongside Phil Salt at the top of the order, Narine has also strung together a prolific partnership.

Having already stumbled to KKR earlier in the season LSG will look out to avoid an encore, with a top-two finish well within its reach.

Teams (from):

Lucknow Super Giants: Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul (c & wk), Deepak Hooda, Ayush Badoni, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Shamar Joseph, Yash Thakur, Manimaran Siddharth, Prerak Mankad, Arshad Khan, Krishnappa Gowtham, Amit Mishra, Kyle Mayers, Ashton Turner, Matt Henry, Naveen-ul-Haq, Devdutt Padikkal, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Mayank Yadav, Arshin Kulkarni.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), KS Bharat (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Gus Atkinson, Allah Ghazanfar, Phil Salt.

Match starts 7:30pm IST.