VISAKHAPATNAM, APRIL 4
Sunil Narine hit a career-best 85 off 39 balls and led Kolkata Knight Riders to an emphatic 106-run win over Delhi Capitals for a third straight victory in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.
Kolkata was in sight of Hyderabad Sunrisers' IPL record of 277 runs scored - against Mumbai Indians last week - before it finished on 272-7 against the likes of fast bowlers Anrich Nortje (3-59) and Ishant Sharma (2-43).
Kolkata's multimillion dollar signing Mitchell Starc (2-25) and impact player substitute Vaibhav Arora (3-27) killed the run-chase inside the batting powerplay as Delhi got bowled out for 166 in 17.2 overs.
Kolkata's big win lifted it to the top of leaderboard in the lucrative T20 league while Delhi slipped to No. 9 with two points from one win in four games - just above winless five-time champion Mumbai.
Delhi's ploy to go with just one spinner Axar Patel didn't work out against Narine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi as the pair raised a 104-run second wicket stand off just 48 balls.
Narine smacked seven sixes and seven fours and Raghuvanshi was equally splendid in scoring 54 off just 27 balls with three sixes and five boundaries. Both fell in successive overs when Narine top-edged pull against Nortje to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant and Raghuvanshi was caught on the edge of third man boundary while going for a ramp shot against Sharma's short ball.
Andre Russell continued the onslaught with a quickfire 41 off 19 balls and Rinku Singh smashed Nortje for 25 in the penultimate over to remain unbeaten on a rapid 26 off just eight balls.
Hyderabad's record was well within Kolkata's reach, but Sharma conceded just eight in the final over and got Russell clean bowled off a perfect yorker.
Starc, who didn't pick up a wicket in the first two games in his first IPL season since 2015, had the wickets of his Australian teammates David Warner (18) and out-of-form Mitchell Marsh (0) in his opening spell. Arora dismissed Prithvi Shaw (10) and Abishek Porel (0) as Delhi slipped to 33-4 in the fifth over.
Pant (55) and Tristan Stubbs (54) made rapid half-centuries with Pant smashing two sixes and four boundaries in Venkatesh Iyer's one over. However, both fell against leg-spinner Varun Chakaravarthy (3-33) while going for big shots as Delhi got bowled out with 16 balls to spare.
