Sunil Narine on Thursday, April 28 became the first overseas spinner to pick up 150 wickets in the Indian Premier League. Narine achieved the feat during Kolkata Knight Riders’ crunch game in IPL 2022 against Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Sunil Narine completed the milestone when he picked up the wicket of Lalit Yadav in his 3rd over as Kolkata Knight Riders were defending a paltry total of 146 after former KKR spinner Kuldeep Yadav picked up a 4-wicket haul.
Sunil Narine becomes the 9th bowler overall to get to the 150-wicket landmark. He is also the 6th spinner to pick up at least 150 wickets in the IPL.
MOST WICKETS IN IPL
Dwayne Bravo – 181 in 158 matches
Lasith Malinga – 170 in 122 matches
Amit Mishra – 166 in 154 matches
Yuzvendra Chahal – 157 in 122 matches
Piyush Chawla – 157 in 165 matches
R Ashwin – 152 in 175 matches
Bhuvneshwar Kumar – 151 in 140 matches
Harbhajan Singh – 150 in 163 matches
Sunil Narine – 150 in 143 matches
In his first season for KKR, Narine made the world sit up and take notice with 24 wickets. He followed up with 22 wickets and 21 wickets. Narine revived his KKR career in 2021, playing a key role in their run to the final, snaring 16 wickets in 14 matches.
Narine was retained by Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs 6 crore ahead of the mega auction as the 2-time champions showed faith 33-year-old spinner who has fallen out of favor from the West Indies national team. However, the veteran spinner has repaid the faith shown in him, picking up 4 wickets in 6 matches at a staggering economy rate of 5 runs per over.
Over the years, Narine has seen many ups and downs. The franchise stood by him when he was reported for chucking as recently as 2020. Narine has evolved as a batter and he played as a pinch-hitter even as he was working out his bowling action.
With a remodeled action, Narine is still one of the toughest spinners to face in IPL 2022 and the West Indies star had said he wants to represent KKR in the future as well and finish his career at the popular franchise.
“Yeah I have always told Venky Mysore that hopefully, I don’t play for any other franchise, I have loved my stay at KKR so hopefully I start and finish her,” Narine told KKR.
“I think it’s a great achievement. You don’t see many overseas players stay with one franchise. Luckily, I am one of them and hopefully, I can continue to be with them in the future.”
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