Even before the first ball of the Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders (MI vs KKR) match today, at the Wankhede Stadium, West Indian star Sunil Narine scripted history in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as an overseas player.
Surpassing his former international team-mate Kieron Pollard, Narine is officially now the most capped overseas player in the league. He achieved the feat as soon as KKR announced their playing line-up to take on the Mumbai Indians, for their first match in this season.
List of overseas cricketers who played the most matches in the Indian Premier League:
- Sunil Narine- 190 IPL matches.
- Kieron Pollard- 189 IPL matches.
- AB de Villiers- 184 IPL matches.
- David Warner- 184 IPL matches.
- Dwayne Bravo- 161 IPL matches.
Sunil Narine has been associated with the Kolkata Knight Riders since the 2012 season. From 2012 to date, the spin-bowling all-rounder has never represented any team other than KKR in this league. So far, he has played 190 matches for the purple brigade.
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When Narine first appeared in the 22-yard, he was a specialist spinner. Later, the Caribbean developed his batting skills and became an opener for the team in the franchise league. Though more than batting works, cricket fans still can remember the ‘mystery’ spin of Sunil Narine.
Sunil Narine has a century as well for KKR in IPL
For KKR, in 190 matches, he has claimed 192 wickets for an amazing economy rate of 6.79, powered by one 5-fer and seven 4-wicket figures. With the bat, he amassed a total of 1780 runs, including one century and seven half-centuries.
In the first match for KKR in the ongoing season, Narine starts against the Mumbai Indians as a lower-middle order batter, as they have multiple hard-hitters in their arsenal.
After multiple early blows in the forms of Mustafizur Rahman, Harshit Rana, and Akash Deep, KKR had to reevaluate their next steps. To compete against a proven batting attack of the Mumbai Indians, the former champions named Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, and Zimbabwe pacer Blessing Muzarabani in their playing combination. Indian all-rounders like Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, and Australian star Cameron Green are there to support the specialist bowlers.
With Ajinkya Rahane and Finn Allen as the openers, KKR went for a flying start at the Wankhede Stadium. Rahane and Allen stitched a 69-run partnership for the opening stand. Rahane gets off the mark with a six off Trent Boult, while his opening partner opens his account with a four after sustaining three dot balls. In Jasprit Bumrah’s first over, the openers of KKR recorded 11 runs; MI skipper Hardik Pandya also proved costly against Rahane and Allen. In the 4th over, Kolkata Knight Riders touched the 50-run mark with ease.
MI vs KKR Playing XIs
Kolkata Knight Riders: Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (w), Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Blessing Muzarabani
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (w), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Sherfane Rutherford, Naman Dhir, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Markande, AM Ghazanfar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
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