Didn't know what to expect from Sunil Narine: Ishant Sharma

The Kings XI Punjab were taken by surprise when they saw Sunil Narine open the innings with Gautam Gambhir. Their pace bowler Ishant Sharma revealed that they did not know what exactly to expect from the West Indies spinner. The Kolkata Knight Riders were playing their first home match of the season as they hosted the Kings at Kolkata. The visiting side did well to post a decent total of 170 runs on the board.

When they took the field in the second innings, a surprise named Sunil Narine beckoned them. What went worse for them was the fact that they had no plans against Narine first up. In the post match conference, Ishant Sharma revealed that they were expecting a certain Robin Uthappa to open the innings in the absence of Chris Lynn. When Narine walked in to bat, skipper Glenn Maxwell told his pacers that Narine had earlier opened in the Big Bash League as well.

“Glenn Maxwell told me that he (Narine) had opened in the BBL and one did not know what to expect,” said Ishant Sharma.

Narine, who has earlier opened for the Melbourne Renegades in the BBL this year, had an average outing with the bat in the tournament. He had opened with Aaron Finch in the Australian league. However, he had a much-improved show in the match against the Kings XI Punjab as he took the role of the opener for Kolkata Knight Riders. He struck a brilliant 37 off just 18 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes.

Along with Gambhir, he stitched a blitzkrieg partnership of 76 runs in just 34 balls to give a flying start to the team. Ishant Sharma noted the same as he mentioned it is tough to defend any score if the team concedes as many as 80 runs in the powerplay. He further noted that the batting got easier in the second innings.

“When you give away 80 runs in six overs, you have no chance of winning even if you score 200. When the dew came, the ball came on nicely to the bat. The spinners were finding it difficult to grip the ball in the dew,” conceded Ishant Sharma as per the quotes in Hindustan Times.