Sunil Narine becomes fourth player to make 500 T20 appearances

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], March 29 (ANI): Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder Sunil Narine became the fourth player and just the second spinner to make 500 appearances in T20 format.

Narine was included in the KKR playing XI for their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday.

Before Narine, his former teammates Kieron Pollard and Dwayne John Bravo hold the first and second positions for most appearances in T20 format, respectively.

Pollard is at the summit with 660 T20 appearances, while Bravo is in the second spot with 573 appearances under his belt. Pakistan all-rounder Shoaib Malik is in the third spot with 542 T20 appearances to his name.

In his 500th T20 appearance, Narine picked Glenn Maxwell’s wicket and conceded 40 runs in his four-over spell.

Overall, Narine has 3736 runs and 537 wickets in 500 T20 appearances at an average of 21.47. Narine’s best bowling figure in T20 format is 5/19.

Pollard in 660 matches has struck 12,900 runs at an average of 31.46 and claimed 316 wickets. Bravo has struck 6,957 runs and claimed 625 wickets. While, Shoaib has 13,360 runs in his kitty and 182 scalps as well.

Coming to the clash between RCB and KKR, Shreyas Iyer won the toss and put the hosts to bat. Virat Kohli, with beliigence struck 83 off just 59 deliveries, which was laced with four boundaries and four maximums.

Kohli’s effortless knock made him the orange cap holder for the current season and propelled RCB to 182/6.

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Philip Salt(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Mitchell Starc, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Cameron Green, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Anuj Rawat(w), Dinesh Karthik, Alzarri Joseph, Mayank Dagar, Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal. (ANI)