Sunil Narine hit 85 to lead Kolkata Knight Riders to the second-best ever IPL total of 272-7 in a crushing 106-run win over Delhi Capitals on Wednesday. The mammoth score came just a week after Sunrisers Hyderabad recorded their highest ever innings total of 277-3. Kolkata, IPL champions in 2012 and 2014, remain unbeaten after three matches this season after bowling out Delhi for 166 in 17.2 overs to top the 10-team table. Delhi skipper Rishabh Pant made 55 off 25 balls, his second consecutive fifty, and Tristan Stubbs hit 54, but the rest of the batting flopped.
The location was home to Delhi due to India’s upcoming general elections, but Narine and Kolkata have made it their own.
Narine burst into the Delhi attack as he hit seven fours and seven sixes in his 39-ball blitz for his highest T20 score in his 501st match.
Narine, 35, defeated Delhi seamer Ishant Sharma for 26 runs in an over as he raised his fifty in 21 balls and scored 104 runs with teenage debutant Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who hit 54.
There was no respite for the bowlers as Narine’s departure of Mitchell Marsh in the 13th over brought in Andre Russell for another punishing knock.
Russell hit 41 off 19 balls and then Rinku Singh threatened to help KKR surpass Hyderabad’s record total with his eight-ball 26.
South African quick Anrich Nortje sent Rinku back at the end of the 19th over and Ishant bowled Russell with a toe-crushing yorker at the start of the 20th as Kolkata fell just short of the record.
The innings contained 18 sixes and 22 fours.
Delhi were never in the chase after they lost four wickets, including Marsh running out for a duck off compatriot Mitchell Starc, inside five overs.
It was the first wicket of the season for the left-arm pacer Starc, who became the most expensive purchase in IPL history after Kolkata paid $2.98 million for him at auction.
Starc also bowled David Warner for 18.
Pant and Stubbs put on 93 runs for the fifth wicket before both fell to spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who took three wickets.
Medium-pacer and impact substitute Vaibhav Arora also claimed three wickets. Narine returned figures of 1-29 with his off-spin.
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