Sunil Narine set a new record for the fastest half-century in the Indian Premier League to lead Kolkata Knight Riders to victory and inflict yet another defeat on Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Set 159 to win after another hapless batting display by Bangalore’s famed Big Three of Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers — Kolkata proceeded to cruise to victory.
On another day, Chris Lynn would have taken the headlines for his 22-ball 50. But the day belonged to Narine, whose half century came off just 15 balls.
After their 105-run stand, it was just a matter of seeing the game out for Kolkata, eventually chasing down the Bangalore total with 29 balls remaining.
“I haven’t seen such a partnership. Unbelievable effort,” said Kolkata captain Gautam Gambhir. “You don’t expect people to get 105 in six overs. I reckon Lynn is the hardest hitter of the ball in international cricket. He showed how mentally tough he is to come back from an injury and bat like this.
“It was a team decision to send Narine up the order because he would hardly bat at No 6 or No 7. We also thought it would make it easy on Lynn to take his time at the other end on his return.”
The win moved Kolkata up to second in the table, level on points with Rising Pune Supergiant but ahead on net run rate.
In the day’s earlier game, Kings XI Punjab saw their play-off hopes rocked by a six wicket defeat to Gujarat Lions.
* The National staff
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