After losing their most furious and in-form batsman Chris Lynn right in their second game against the Mumbai Indians, The Kolkata Knight Riders had a big challenge to find his alternative who could open with Gautam Gambhir. In the very next game against the Kings XI Punjab, the man who came in to open with skipper Gambhir surprised everyone. He was none other than Carribean spinner Sunil Narine. The gamble worked and they continued this streak. And in the game number 23 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 10 between KKR and Gujarat Lions, Narine proved that he is truly capable of opening the inning in limit over cricket.
Gujarat skipper Suresh Raina won the toss and invited KKR to bat first. This time Narine took the strike and he just blasted right from the beginning. Though he is a world class bowler but the way he batted, nobody could say that he is not an all-time regular opener. Runs kept coming off his bat while Gambhir was thoroughly enjoying this show from the non-striker’s end. After the completion of two overs, Narine faced 11 balls and scored 28 runs while Gambhir’s score was 1 run off 1 ball.
By the time, everybody has had this in their minds that he will definitely score his fastest fifty in T20 cricket and could convert that into his first ton! After facing 17 balls, he had scored 42 runs but unfortunately, he was dismissed in the very next ball delivered by Gujarat skipper Suresh Raina. Narine tried for a pull shot but couldn’t time it perfectly and was caught by James Faulkner at mid-on.
Though his monstrous inning finished early but he provided the much-needed start to his team. His extraordinary batting show was thoroughly enjoyed by every cricket fan and the way Twitterati admired his act was remarkable!
Narine is on 42 off 16. Gauti is on 2 from 2. We’ve all been in relationships like that #KKRvGL
— Gaurav Kapur (@gauravkapur) April 21, 2017
Narine has hit 7 boundaries….and he’s yet to face a bouncer or a yorker. #KKRvGL #IPL
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) April 21, 2017
Narine’s gone mad and he’s driving Gujarat Lions nuts!
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) April 21, 2017
SIX!#Narine lofts the ball comfortably for a maximum. #DusKiDahaad #AmiKKR #KKRvGL pic.twitter.com/aTlts5vwqu
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 21, 2017
Stuff commentators never thought they’d be saying – “Gambhir’s job is to take a single and give the strike to Sunil Narine” oh well #KKRvGL
— Jatin Sapru (@jatinsapru) April 21, 2017
Sunil Narine once hit four consecutive sixes of Maxwell against Australia in an ODI match..
— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) April 15, 2017
Gayle must be thinking he has a real competition now from his own nation #Narine #KKRvsGL
— Umaid Anjum (@umaid_anjum) April 21, 2017
Narine Narine What an innings by Narine @KKRiders @IPL
— Ayush Gupta (@ayushsmart6) April 21, 2017
What an explosive batsman Sunil Narine has turned out to be for #KKR. Superb stuff #IPL
— Abhishek #KKR (@ImAbhishek_) April 21, 2017
Fearless Narine…
— Soumyojit Adhikary (@soumyo_tweet) April 21, 2017
While WI is playing a test, somewhere else in #IPL, Narine is testing bowlers with bat. Not sure if anybody anticipated this. @cricketaakash
— Cric Lama (@Cric_Lama) April 21, 2017
