CHENNAI: Blistering half centuries from Sunil Narine (85 from 39 balls) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (54 off 27) at the top and a late flourish from Rinku Singh and Andre Russell took Kolkata Knight Riders to 272/7 in 20 overs against Delhi Capitals on Wednesday.
Opting to bat first at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, KKR got off to a flying start with Narine and Phil Salt going for their shots from ball one. Salt hit consecutive boundaries off Ishant Sharma while Narine took on Khaleel Ahmed. In the fourth over, Narine hit three sixes and two fours off Ishant as KKR raced to 58/0 in four overs.
Brought in to break the partnership, Anrich Nortje removed Salt for 18 runs from 12 balls. However, Raghuvanshi kept the momentum going, hooking the South African on the very first ball he faced. The second ball was punched behind point for another boundary. From thereon, there was no stopping the duo as KKR finished the powerplay with 88/1 on the board.
Even as the field spread, Delhi had one quiet over where Narine was dropped when he was on 52. In the very next over by Axar Patel, the West Indian hit two sixes while Raghuvanshi went after Sumit Kumar. At the halfway mark, KKR were 135/1.
While it was raining fours and sixes with Narine standing tall and hitting every bowler who came his way, Raghuvanshi was no less. He reverse swatted Rasikh Salam over third-man for a six. Two balls later, he sent one over deep midwicket stands. Narine, on the other hand, was not even troubled by Nortje's pace, flat-batting the South African into the crowd. When it looked like he was set for a century, Mitchell Marsh broke the partnership sending Narine back for 85 runs. In the next over, Raghuvanshi got out trying to ramp Nortje for 54 runs. At that point, KRR were 176/3 in 13.2 overs.
While Shreyas Iyer got out shortly after, Rinku (26 from 8 balls) and Russell (41 off 19) added 32 runs in ten balls, threatening to take KKR past the record score of 277. However, Ishant delivered a terrific last over to keep KKR to 272/7.