Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) legend Sunil Narine put up an exceptional performance against the Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the 31st match of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Tuesday 16 of April. .
Sunil Narine hit his first ton in T20 cricket as he took the RR bowlers to the cleaners. He finished his innings with a score of 109 off 56 balls. Narine’s innings was studded with 13 fours and 6 sixes and he helped the Knight Riders score 223/6 on the board.
The 35-year-old became the first player in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to have a century and a five-wicket haul to his name. He also became the third West Indies player after Chris Gayle and Lendl Simmons to hit an IPL ton.
The batting performance against Rajasthan Royals (RR) made Sunil Narine only the third cricketer in IPL history after Rohit Sharma and Shane Warne to score a century and take a hat-trick.
He gave me confidence and his security – Sunil Narine on Gautam Gambhir
Speaking during the mid-innings break, Sunil Narine credited KKR mentor Gautam Gambhir for giving him confidence to open the innings for the team. Sunil Narine said:
“(At the beginning of the season, if someone had told him he would be in the running for the orange cap) he would have taken it as a joke because I haven’t started or done much with the bat in a long time in the past years (Starting this year) With the return of GG (Gambhir), it gave me the confidence and assurance that I will open the batting.
Talking about his mindset, Narine said that he only thinks about giving his team good starts as wasting the powerplay could hurt them at the end of the innings. He said:
“(Mentality) The job is just to go out there and try to get a good start, whatever the situation is, keep going because if you try to face point balls on the power play, you could get hurt on the backend. So just go there and try to give your team a good start.”
Sunil Narine admitted that bowling at the Eden Gardens track will not be easy for KKR players. Sunil Narine said:
“We have an understanding about it, it’s not going to be easy (bowling here), we have to make use of the powerplay, pick up early, wickets and make sure we control in the middle and try to restrict them.”
When asked about his earlier comments about playing the 2024 T20 World Cup, Sunil Narine said he would wait and see what the future holds for him. Sunil Narine said:
“(“I will be watching from home, Badree,” were Narine’s words after the previous match when asked if he could make it to the WC T20. When asked about that statement today) It is what it is, we will have to do it .see what the future holds.”