England World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan praised Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bowling all-rounder Sunil Narine for his match-winning performance against Delhi Capitals (DC) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Said some of his bowling performances would have delighted his boyhood hero, West Indies legend Brian Lara. Narine was the chief tormentor as he smashed 85 off 39 balls to help Kolkata post 272/7, the second-highest total in IPL history, although DC captain Rishabh Pant and Tristan Stubbs had Half a century behind, but they still defended the result.

DC were bowled out for 166 and lost the match in Visakhapatnam by 106 runs.

JioCinema IPL expert Morgan pointed out that Lara was Narine’s batting idol and the T20 specialist was also a batsman who could bowl a bit of seam bowling in his youth. But he eventually turned into a spinner who could bat.

“It shows how much he enjoys batting. As a youngster he was a batsman who was used to bowling some seams. Over time he developed these magical deliveries and worked hard on them. But He got a lot of joy out of hitting the ball “Growing up, his hero was Brian Lara. Lara will be happy with some footage of Narine playing tonight,” Morgan said of Narine.

Narine has a good record in the IPL. In 165 IPL games, he scored 1,180 runs with five half-centuries at an average of 14.94 and a strike rate of 163.89. His best score is 85 points.

In three games this season, Narine has scored 134 runs at an average of 44.66, a strike rate of 206.15, and scores of 2, 47 and 85 respectively. He has also taken 3 wickets so far. He is the ninth-highest run scorer so far this season.

Talking about batting, Narine’s most prolific season was in 2018 when he scored 357 runs in 16 games at an average of 22.31 and a strike rate of over 189. He also scored two 50-pointers, with his best score being 75 points. KKR entered the playoffs on the back of his stellar performance, picking up 17 wickets at an average of 27.47.

Wednesday’s match saw explosive knocks from Sunil Narine (85 off 39 balls, including 7 fours and 7 sixes), 18-year-old Angkrish Raghuvanshi (54 off 27 balls with 5 fours and 3 sixes) and Andre Russell cameo (41 off 19 balls with 4 boundaries and 3 sixes) and Rinku Singh (26 off 8 balls, including 1 four and 3 sixes) took the two-time champions to 272/7 in 20 overs.

Anrich Nortje (3/59) was the bowler for DC but missed a lot of runs. Ishant Sharma (2/43) was also solid with the ball. Khalil Ahmed and Mitchell Marsh took one wicket each.

In the run chase, DC’s odds drop to 33/4. Captain Rishabh (55 off 25 balls with 4 boundaries and 5 sixes) and Tristan Stubbs (54 off 32 balls with 4 boundaries and 4 sixes) A 93-run partnership helped DC fight a short battle and provided their team with some entertainment for the fans, but they were bowled out for 166 in 17.2 overs.

Vaibhav Arora (3/27) and Varun Chakravarthy (3/33) are KKR’s bowling options. Mitchell Starc also took 2/25 in three overs. Andre Russell and Sunil Narine took one wicket each.

Narine won the Man of the Match award for his fifty. KKR are at the top of the table having won all three games and collected 6 points. DC is ranked ninth with 1 win and 3 losses, with 2 points.

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