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Narine leads from the front as Kolkata trump Delhi in IPL / Photo: © AFP
Narine leads from the front as Kolkata trump Delhi in IPL
West Indies' Sunil Narine put in a fine all-round performance to keep holders Kolkata Knight Riders alive in the IPL with a tense 14-run win over Delhi Capitals on Tuesday.
Narine smashed 27 off 16 balls in Kolkata's 204-9 and then returned figures of 3-29 with his mystery spin to restrict the opposition to 190-9 at Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla ground.
Delhi's South African star Faf du Plessis top-scored with 62 off 45 balls, but his knock was in vain as the hosts regularly lost wickets.
Delhi are fourth in the 10-team table. Kolkata, who won their third title last year, stay seventh with four wins and five defeats.
The top four teams at the end of the league phase will move into the play-offs of the popular and lucrative T20 tournament.
Du Plessis hit back for Delhi after Abishek Porel's early departure, but Kolkata had the opposition in trouble at 60-3 when KL Rahul was run out off a direct hit by Narine.
Du Plessis, who returned to the team in the previous match after missing four games due to injury, raised his fifty in 31 balls and put on 76 runs with skipper Axar Patel, who hit a quickfire 43.
Narine broke the stand to get Axar back in the dugout and five balls later bowled Tristan Stubbs for one to tilt the game in KKR's favour.
He then got the prized wicket of Du Plessis in his final over to dim Delhi's hopes, but Vipraj Nigam smashed 38 off 19 balls to keep the chase alive until the last over when he fell to Andre Russell.
Earlier, Narine and fellow opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz set it up for Kolkata in their brisk stand of 48 from 18 balls.
Narine got off the mark with a first-ball six off Sri Lankan pace bowler Dushmantha Chameera and along with Gurbaz got 25 runs from the second over.
Starc got Afghanistan's Gurbaz caught behind for 26.
Delhi struck back when leg-spinner Nigam trapped Narine lbw in his first over and Axar had skipper Ajinkya Rahane, who made a 14-ball 26, lbw with his left-arm spin.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi, a 20-year-old up and coming batter who made 44, stood firm and, with Rinku Singh, added 61 runs.
Chameera denied Raghuvanshi his fifty and Nigam cut short Rinku's knock on 36 in the next over.
Russell, who turned 37 on Tuesday, took the team past 200 with a six off Mitchell Starc, who roared back with two wickets in two balls in the 20th over but the hat-trick was avoided.
Australia's left-arm quick Starc trapped Rovman Powell lbw and then dismissed Anukul Roy for a duck with Chameera taking a stunner in the deep as he dived full length to take the catch.
L.M. Cardoso--JDB
