Sunil Narine has been instrumental in KKR’s success in the initial stage of IPL 2024. He was named Man of the Match in two of the three matches they have won so far. Kolkata Knight Riders have won three of the four matches so far in the league. They lost their previous match against Chennai Super Kings.
CSK restricted KKR to 137/9 in their 20 overs in Chennai. KKR batsmen after Narine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s good start in the powerplay failed to capitalise. The duo added 56 in the powerplay, after which the rest of the KKR batsmen could not add too many runs to the scoreboard.
Ravindra Jade topped the KRR batting lineup with his spell of 3/18. Mustafizur Rahman took two wickets and Tushar Deshpande took three. CSK then chased down the total within 18 overs to win the match.
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Ahead of KKR’s upcoming match against LSG, Sunil Narine was seen practicing fast bowling in the team’s practice sessions. He was seen walking and bowing at a medium pace before Andre Russell. Talking about the rivalry between KKR and LSG, Kolkata Knight Riders are yet to win a match against Lucknow Super Giants.
Watch: Sunil Narine tries his luck at Pace Bowling
We present to you the first mystery in the world 🤝 pic.twitter.com/tfz37qEjUz
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 13, 2024
The two teams played once in 2022 and LSG won the match by 75 runs in the first game. KKR came close in the match, but LSG won the second match by a margin of two runs. The two teams played once last year and the Super Giants won by one run at Eden Gardens.
LSG will play KKR again at Eden Gardens on Sunday. They come into this match after a loss against Delhi Capitals in their last match.
Meanwhile, Gautam Gambhir, who mentored LSG in 2022 and 2023, has now joined KKR as a team mentor. KKR’s most successful captain has a job on his hands against his former team.
Starting with the game against LSG, The Knight Riders will play five consecutive games at home. This is your chance to bet on home conditions and win games.
After their loss to CSK, KKR captain Shreyas Iyer tried to explain how they fell short in the match. In general, he blamed the batters for not giving his pitchers enough runs to play.
“We had a phenomenal start in the powerplay but lost consecutive wickets. We couldn’t assess the conditions quickly after the powerplay, scoring runs was not easy. They (CSK) know the conditions quite well, they played according to their plans “
“It wasn’t easy (for the new batsmen) to go after them from the first ball. We were trying to build the innings but it didn’t go as per the plan. The wicket changed after the powerplay. We were in a comfortable place and we thought 160 “-170 was a good result, but we lost momentum.”
“We have to go back to the drawing board and learn from that. I’m glad this happened at the beginning of the tournament. When we come back, we know the home conditions pretty well. We need to analyze the situations and take action to make the best use of it. “ Iyer said after the loss to CSK.
Talking about Sunil Narine, he has scored 161 runs in four matches at an average of 40.25 and a strike rate of 189.41. He has taken four wickets in four games so far.
His best season with the ball in recent times was 2021, when he took 16 wickets with the ball as KKR reached the final but lost to CSK. His form with bat and ball will be crucial for KKR’s future.
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