KOLKATA, India, CMC – Sunil Narine produced a cameo with the bat in the opening role but proved ineffective with the ball, as Kolkata Knight Riders went down by four wickets to Dwayne Smith’s Gujarat Lions at Eden Gardens here yesterday.
Sent in, KKR piled up a respectable 187 for five off their 20 overs, with Robin Uthappa top-scoring with 72 and West Indies player Narine chiming in with a positive 42 off a mere 17 deliveries.
In reply, Lions were propelled by captain Suresh Raina’s 46-ball 84, as they overhauled their target with 10 balls to spare.
The defeat for KKR was their second in six outings and left them second in the standings on eight points while Lions registered just their second win and remained one from bottom.
Sunil Narine … smashed a cameo at the top of the order.
Once again thrust into the role of opener, the left-handed Narine flourished, spanking nine fours and a six in a stroke-filled innings.
The Trinidadian blasted three fours off the opening over from Praveen Kumar and followed up with another four boundaries in the second over from Australian seamer James Faulkner which cost 17 runs.
Narine then got stuck into seamer Basil Thampi in the third over, striking him for two consecutive fours on either side of the wicket before going straight for his only six.
He dominated a 45-run, opening stand with captain Gautam Gambhir (33) before finally holing out to mid-wicket off Raina’s off-spin.
Uthappa then put on 69 for the second wicket with Gambhir and a further 55 for the third wicket with Manish Pandey (24), to give the innings momentum.
In reply, Lions benefitted from cameos from openers Brendon McCullum (33) and Aaron Finch (31) before Raina arrived to blast nine fours and four sixes in a scorcher.
Smith failed with five batting at number six.
Narine had little impact with his off-spin, finishing wicket-less from his four overs which leaked 42 runs.
