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Following a win against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder Sunil Narine admitted that powerplay overs are the hardest to play.
With a scintillating batting display, the Kolkata Knight Riders became the first team to win away from home in this IPL following their comprehensive seven-wicket win over RCB on Friday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. The 35-year-old player asserted that in KKR team, players have the full freedom to do what they want. "It's a nice milestone (500 T20s). Hopefully 500 more are to come. It's just the self belief and the support staff giving the encouragement. Also the hard work. Powerplay over is the hardest over - just have to let that go and keep it tight. Helps when you win. Players have full freedom to do what they want to do," the all-rounder stated in the post-match presentation. Earlier, before the start of the clash, Narine became the fourth player and just the second spinner to make 500 appearances in T20 format. Before Narine, his former teammates Kieron Pollard and Dwayne John Bravo held the first and second positions for most appearances in T20 format, respectively. Pollard is at the summit with 660 T20 appearances, while Bravo is in the second spot with 573 appearances under his belt. Pakistan all-rounder Shoaib Malik is in the third spot with 542 T20 appearances to his name. Coming to the match, KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to field first. While batting first, RCB, with the brilliance of Kohli's unbeaten knock of 83 runs, the franchise scored 182/6 in 20 overs. For KKR, two wickets each were grabbed by Harshit Rana and Andre Russell in their four-over spells, where they conceded 39 runs in their respective spells. One wicket was bagged by Narine in their respective spells of four overs, where he conceded 40 runs. In reply to RCB's total, KKR chased down the target of 183 runs in the 17th over with seven wickets in hand. Venkatesh Iyer scored fifty in 30 balls with the help of four sixes and three fours. Narine played a quickfire knock in the powerplay, where he scored 47 runs on just 22 balls with five maximums and two fours in his innings. Narine was awarded Player of the Match for his all-round performance. (ANI)
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