All-rounder Sunil Narine, who came to open the innings for Kolkata Knight Riders along with skipper Gautam Gambhir, stunned the crowd after he scored 18 runs off the first over of an Indian Premier League match against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Eden Gardens on April 23. The over was bowled by Narine’s Caribbean teammate Samuel Badree.
Earlier, Bangalore captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to field against KKR. The match started 45 minutes after the schedule time due to rain. Despite the rain taking away around 30 minutes of the scheduled time, the umpires decided that minimum overs of 20 per side will remain.
RCB, who won their last game against Gujarat Lions by 21 runs, made three changes, including AB de Villiers, Samuel Badree and Tymal Mills in place of Adam Milne, Shane Watson and Travis Head.
KKR, who lost by four wickets to Gujarat, made just one change, with Colin de Grandhomme coming in place of Shakib Al Hasan.
Meanwhile, KKR managed to put up 131 (all-out) runs on board. Besides Naraine, no other batsmen performed and they kept losing wickets at the regular intervals. For RCB, Yuzvendra Chahal was the pick of the bowlers, he picked up a 3-fer.
#IPL Match 27 – @KKRiders vs. @RCBTweets: The toss has been delayed due to rain #KKRvRCB pic.twitter.com/0KP224CGbu
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 23, 2017
For Kolkata, Sunil Naraine top scored with 34 off 17 balls. He smashed 6 fours and 1 six. Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers need 132 runs to win this battle.
Soon after Naraine;s innings, Twitter got flooded with congratulatory messages for the West Indian all-rounder.
Sunil Narine has been a revelation at the top of the order for KKR #boundaries
— Steve Smith (@stevesmith49) April 23, 2017
Sunil Narine has been a revelation at the top of the order for KKR #boundaries
— Steve Smith (@stevesmith49) April 23, 2017
#Narine the batsman gives KKR yet another breezy start. The bowlers haven’t had any answers to his hitting.#KKRvRCB #CricketMeriJaan
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) April 23, 2017
#KKRvRCB kkr 131 all out ,yahi hota h jab aap bowler (narine)ko batsman bnate hai to ,to batsmen bowler ban jaate hai.
— Nitin tushir (@Nitintushir_1) April 23, 2017
#KKRvRCB you really cant hope to win when a batsman like sunil narine is your highest scorer
— Saurav Kr (@sauravZT7) April 23, 2017
KKR’s batsmen:
Narine – 7 boundaries off 17 balls
All others – 9 boundaries off 100 balls#KKRvRCB— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) April 23, 2017
The best batsman in KKR, in today’s match..only NARINE..
— Kumar Rahul Shah (@rahul30404463) April 23, 2017
#KKRvRCB Narine Is an Awesome All-rounder @SunilPNarine74 #AmiKkr #IPL2017 #ipl And a game changer too..Go Kkr..Put the bowling on TOP!
— Follow Me To My Path (@yaseenbeats) April 23, 2017
#amikkrwe fight at last time . Narine sahine bat as well as ball . Come to see his magic
— Harikrishnanp (@Harikri09559326) April 23, 2017
#KKR couldn’t continue the momentum of #narine #KKRvRCB
— Hemanth kumar (@potturuhemkumar) April 23, 2017
Failed batting lineup . Only Sunil Narine is performing. 48/1 and 131 allout seriouly @KKRiders #KKRvRCB .Need to perform well in bowling
— Anirban chatterjee (@Anirban024) April 23, 2017
@bhogleharsha 131 is not an easy chase for RCB. even there has narine , kuldeep and well pathan available in #KKR
— golu maurya (@golumaurya07) April 23, 2017
#KKRvRCB Brilliant bowling by @RCBTweets . Btw, is Narine the next Jayasuriya? Easily the MVP in the tournament at the moment.
— Sankara Subramaniam (@Sankarcalls) April 23, 2017
#KKRvRCB you really cant hope to win when a batsman like sunil narine is your highest scorer
— Saurav Kr (@sauravZT7) April 23, 2017
