New Delhi: The Australia – West Indian opening combination of Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine helped Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) sweep aside out-of-sorts Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by six wickets in a rain-interrupted Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday. The duo produced an incredible show boundaries, so much so that skipper Gautam Gambhir branded Lynn as the hardest hitter of the ball at present. (IPL 2017 – Full Coverage | Points Table)
“I reckon (Lynn) is the hardest hitter of the ball at the moment in international cricket. The way he backs himself is unbelievable, for someone who was out with an injury for a month to play the way he did today shows the quality he has and how much be backs his game and how mentally tough he is,” cricket.com.au quoted Lynn as saying.
The left-handed batsman, who himself has been one of the most consistent performers of the IPL 2017 season, called the Lynn-Naraine partnership the best he has ever seen.
“That was the best partnership I’ve seen in my entire career.You don’t expect people to get 105 in six overs. It was team management, we thought there’s no point making him bat at eight or nine because he was hardly getting any balls to face,” Gambhir said.
Gambhir also revealed the reason behind giving Lynn an outing so early after his serious shoulder injury.
“We thought if someone could go hard from the other end it could just give Lynny some time because he was coming back after a month. But the way Lynny batted today was unbelievable, from both ends it was the best hitting I’ve seen,” he concluded.
Pursuing RCB`s 158/4, KKR romped home with 159/4 in 15.1 overs riding on a 105-run stand by Narine (54; 17b 6×4 4×6) and Lynn (50; 22b 5×4 4×6) in just 6.1 overs at a run rate of 17.02.
Source: Zee News