Kolkata Knight Riders managed to register their second consecutive win in the 2024 season of the Indian Premier League after beating the Royal Challengers Bengaluru by seven wickets. Despite a Virat Kohli masterclass, KKR’s opening batter, Sunil Narine managed to put up a match-winning performance, scoring 47 off just 23 deliveries within the second innings batting powerplay.
His performances led to the all-rounder winning the Player of the Match award. Speaking at the post-match presentation, Narine who is a man of few words gave a short reaction by saying,” It’s a nice milestone (on reaching 500 T20s). Hopefully 500 more to come”.
The opening batter set the tone in KKR’s chase of 183. Despite missing out on the fifty, KKR’s second innings was supported by a quick fifty by Venkatesh Iyer who scored it in just 30 deliveries followed by the skipper Shreyas Iyer scoring the winning runs.
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Narine has been under pressure for quite some time as he has not been able to deliver in the IPL for quite some seasons following the championship-winning era under their former skipper Gautam Gambhir. His position at the top of the order has been up for debate as well with him having not scored a total above 20 runs for the past five years.
But the pinch-hitter highlighted that he backed himself to perform and had received confidence from the management to help the side get the job done which resulted in today’s knock. He added,” It’s just the self-belief and the support staff giving the encouragement. Also the hard work. Powerplay over is the hardest over, you just have to let that go and keep it tight”.
READ MORE: IPL 2024: Kolkata Knight Riders Beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 7 Wickets to End Streak of Home Teams Winning
He also added,” Helps when you win. Players have full freedom to do what they want to do”.
The batting performances of Narine will give KKR more confidence in backing him through the season as they look to end their title drought which has lasted for about 10 years.
READ MORE: Andre Russell Joins Elite List With Double of 1000 Runs and 100 Wickets; Sunil Narine Makes 500th T20 Appearance
The franchise is now the first team to win the first away game of the season and it will serve them in good stead as they now shift their focus to take on the Delhi Capitals which takes place at Visakhapatnam.
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