Veteran KKR spinner Sunil Narine enters elite club during IPL 2024 clash against RCB

Veteran Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) off-spinner Sunil Narine completed a special milestone during Friday’s Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Bengaluru, achieving the rare feat of completing 500 appearances in the shortest format.

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Narine, who has represented KKR in each of his 12 seasons in the IPL besides the current one, is only the fourth cricketer in the history of the sport to play 500 or more matches in the shortest format.

Fellow West Indians Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo occupy the top two spots with 660 and 573 appearances respectively, the former the only player in the 600-match club. Pakistan all-rounder Shoaib Malik, who has retired from all formats except T20, sits at the third spot on the list with 542 appearances.

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Narine has made 164 of his 500 T20 appearances in the IPL alone, and currently is 18th on the list of players with most appearances in the cash-rich league, a list that is led by Chennai Super Kings wicketkeeper-batter MS Dhoni (252). Narine also represented the West Indies in 51 T20Is and was part of the 2012 World T20-winning team captained by Daren Sammy.

The greatest there was, the greatest there is, the greatest there ever will be…GOAT-RINE! 🐐👑 pic.twitter.com/7sj8PYEVgD

— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 29, 2024

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The Trinidadian proved expensive in his milestone appearance though, conceding 40 runs from four overs, getting hit for a six and two fours by Cameron Green in his first over of the day. He would, however, account for the wicket of hard-hitting Australian all-rounder Cameron Green, who was caught by Rinku Singh to depart for 28 off 19 balls.

RCB would end up posting 182/6 on the board after getting invited to bat by KKR captain Shreyas Iyer at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium, thanks primarily to Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 83 off 59 deliveries — his second half-century on the trot.

Narine, however, ended up making the milestone appearance a special one with a whirlwind 47 off 22 balls after walking out to commence KKR’s chase in the company of Phil Salt. Narine smashed five sixes and two fours and his clean hitting of the ball and domination of the seamers got Kolkata off to a flying start.

Salt had struck two sixes and a four off Mohammed Siraj’s bowling in an 18-run first over, but it was all Narine from the second over onwards as Kolkata raced past the fifty mark inside four overs and reached 85 for no loss at the end of the powerplay.

Narine was later adjudged the Player of the Match for his heroics with the bat along with his dismissal of Maxwell.