Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], April 3 (ANI): Spinner Sunil Narine completed 200 wickets for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), becoming the first player from the team to do so.
Narine reached this milestone during his side's Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday.
During the game, Narine bowled a four-over spell in which he gave away 30 runs and took the wicket of Kamindu Mendis.
Now in 189 matches for KKR since debut in 2012, Narine has taken 200 wickets at an average of 24.14, with best figures of 5/19, his solitary five-wicket haul. He also has eight four-wicket hauls.
Narine is the fourth-highest wicket-taker in IPL history, with 182 wickets at an average of 25.60 in 180 matches, with best figures of 5/19. His rest of the wickets for KKR have come in the now-defunct Champions League T20 competition, where he took 18 scalps in nine matches.
Narine has the second-highest number of wickets by a bowler for a single team in T20s, next to Samit Patel's 208 wickets for Nottinghamshire.
Coming to the match, SRH won the toss and fielded first. Their decision seemed to pay off when they sent Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine for single-digits, reducing KKR to 16/2, but a counter-attack by Rahane (38 in 27 balls, with a four and four sixes) and Raghuvanshi (50 in 32 balls, with five fours and two sixes) brought them back into the game. After the quick loss of these two stars, Venkatesh Iyer (60 in 29 balls, with seven fours and three sixes) and Rinku Singh (32* in 17 balls, with four boundaries and a six) powered KKR to 200/6 in their 20 overs with a 91-run stand for the fifth wicket.
Mohammed Shami (1/29) and Harshal Patel (1/43) were top wicket-takers for SRH.
During the run-chase, SRH was never truly in the match and lost wickets at rapid rate. Vaibhav Arora (3/29) and Varun Chakravarthy (3/22) stood out as only Heinrich Klaasen (33 in 21 balls, with two fours and two sixes) and Kamindu Mendis (27 in 20 balls, with a four and two sixes) could cross the 20-run mark.
With this win, KKR's campaign is somewhat back on track as with two wins andtwo losses. They are in the fifth spot. SRH are at the bottom with a win and three losses. (ANI)