Indian Premier League

NEW DELHI: Sunil Narine‘s dazzling half-century, combined with a strong performance from the bowlers, led Kolkata Knight Riders to a commanding 98-run victory over Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL on Sunday.LSG’s decision to bowl first backfired, as KKR became the first team to score over 200 runs at the Ekana Stadium.Narine showcased his batting prowess once again, smashing 81 off 38 balls, including seven sixes and six fours, to propel KKR to an imposing total of 235/6.LSG faced a daunting chase and needed to start aggressively, but they struggled to find the big shots and were eventually bowled out for 137 in 16.1 overs. Within the first 10 overs, LSG had lost half the side including skipper KL Rahul (25), Arshin Kulkarni (9), Deepak Hooda (5) and big hitters Marcus Stoinis (36) and Nicholas Pooran (10).Ashton Turner hit some lusty blows and looked in mood to showcase his batting prowess but the Australian was supremely unlucky as an inside edge deflected off his boot with Varun Chakravarthy completing a caught and bowled. With the win KKR moved to the top of the table. They have 16 points, the same as Rajasthan Royals but have played one game more.LSG, on the other hand, dropped out of the top four to the fifth spot with 12 points from 11 games. Their Net Run Rate also took a massive hit going down from 0.094 to -0.371. Earlier, the in-form Narine, who was dropped twice in the space of two balls, smoked five boundaries in five balls, setting the tone for the KKR innings.First, he hammered back-to-back fours off Naveen-ul-Haq in the last two balls of the third over. He then attacked the offside, hitting three boundaries on the trot off Mohsin Khan in the fourth over. Narine and Phil Salt (32) gave the two-time champions the explosive start they have come to expect from the duo. Together they put up a quick 61-run stand before Naveen-ul Haq took the pace off the ball to send the Englishman packing.Medium pacer Yash Thakur then stemmed the flow of runs in the final over of the powerplay, giving away only two runs as KKR reached 70/1.However, the unperturbed Narine continued his onslaught and brought up his fifty off 27 deliveries with a cheeky late dab that sent the ball rolling past short third.He took a particular liking to Marcus Stoinis, sending the ball over the fence three times in the 11th over.But Ravi Bishnoi, on whose bowling Narine was dropped twice before, was third time lucky as he put an end to the all-rounder’s spectacular innings.The LSG bowlers were able to rein in the KKR batters as they kept taking wickets.Naveen-ul Haq got rid of Andre Russell (12) before Yudhvir Singh, who came as a concussion sub for Mohsin Khan, picked up young Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s (32) wicket in the next over.The Afghan pacer swung back into action to account for the big-hitting Rinku Singh (16) while Thakur removed Shreyas Iyer (23).But Ramandeep Singh’s unbeaten 25 off 6 balls took KKR past the 230-run mark.(With inputs from PTI)