Narine and Salt punish Punjab bowlers

Harpreet Singh © Getty Images

Sunil Narine and Phil Salt punished the bowling of the demoralised Punjab Kings to help the Kolkata Knight Riders reach a huge 261 for six in their Tata IPL match at a packed and steaming hot Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Friday.

It was the highest total ever scored in the IPL at Eden Gardens, their second highest ever in the competition and the first above 200 in this campaign.

Put in to bat by Punjab, the pair smashed 138 for the opening wicket in just 63 balls, a one-way flow of runs that was partly due to some belligerent batting, but was equally the responsibility of the Punjab bowlers and fielders who were both poor.

The bowlers bowled too wide, too short and too often in the “slot”; the fielders dropped Narine once and Salt twice – all three chances should have been taken by Arshdeep Singh, Sam Curran and Kagiso Rabada respectively.

A seemingly disinterested Rabada had an outing to forget, going for 43 off his first two overs that were devoid of the intensity that we normally expect. In the end, he went for 52 runs in three overs. Skipper Sam Curran was no better, conceding 60 runs in his four overs in return for the wicket of Salt for 75 in 37 balls, his worst analysis in the IPL.

The remaining KKR batters ensured that the momentum of the innings rarely dropped after the demise of the openers, with Venkatesh Iyer (39 off 23 balls), Andre Russell (24 off 12) and Shreyas Iyer (28 off 10) all striking at close to 200 per cent. Shreyas Iyer may have played the best shot in the innings, a languid clip off his legs to a “slot” delivery from Curran that went 10 rows back over the midwicket boundary.

But it was the openers who set the tone and the pace of the innings. Narine, who has already struck a century in this year’s tournament, flamboyantly drove his first ball from Curran over extra-cover for four to reveal the KKR batter’s intentions. He continued his assault in the second over, pulling Singh for a huge six, and the partnership went from there.

The pair reached 76 without loss at the end of the power play and went on at a similar helter-skelter pace after that. The pitch was a little slower and lower than usual, a factor that Punjab didn’t account for as the KKR batters hit everything loose for boundaries. Narine’s 71 came in a lightning 32 balls and included nine fours and four sixes.

It was a tough day for the Punjab bowlers with legspinner Rahul Chahar emerging with the most credit, taking 1-33 (the scalp of Narine) in his four.

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Phil Salt (wk), Sunil Narine, Angrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (capt), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Dushmantha Chameera, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana

PUNJAB KINGS: Jitesh Sharma (wk), Jonny Bairstow, Rilee Rossouw, Sam Curran (capt), Shashank Singh,  Ashutosh Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh, Rahul Chahar