Narine and Buttler: A Tale of Two Centuries in IPL 2024.

Cricket Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024

Posted 3 months ago

Narine and Buttler: A Tale of Two Centuries in IPL 2024.

Sunil Narine put up a stellar performance to keep Kolkata Knight Riders in contention for their fifth win of the season. He became only the third KKR player to score a century, contributing significantly to their total of 223 runs.

Narine also bowled with great economy, boasting the best rate among all 11 bowlers in the match with 7.5. He made an impact with the ball, taking two crucial wickets, and showcased his fielding skills by catching the opposition captain while back-peddling from mid-on.

Despite his remarkable performance, Sunil Narine ended up on the losing side, and that's all thanks to the brilliance of Jos Buttler.

Buttler's innings seemed to be going nowhere at first. He had sat out the previous game due to injury, coming in as an Impact Player in the second innings with his left hamstring heavily strapped.

This IPL season hadn't been the best for Buttler; besides his unbeaten 100 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, his highest score was only 13. Even against KKR, he appeared a bit rusty initially.

By the end of 14 overs, Buttler's strike rate was only at 127.27. The required run rate for Royals had skyrocketed to 16 runs per over, and they had just four wickets in hand.

According to ESPNcricinfo's forecaster, at that point, Royals had a mere 0.44% chance of pulling off a win.