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It is a blockbuster start to a weekend in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) set to face each other on Friday (March 29) in the 10th match. The two teams, over the years, have been involved in some breathtaking matches and it will be no different in this season as well with the Chinnaswamy stadium gearing up for the classic encounter.
Meanwhile, this game will be special for KKR spinner Sunil Narine who will be walking out to play his 500th T20 match of this illustrious career. Narine is set to become only the fourth player in history to play as many matches with Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Shoaib Malik doing it before him. Pollard is on top of this list with a staggering 660 appearances in the shortest format of the game across all leagues and internationals.
Narine has scaled many heights with ball and bat both in the T20 format ever since he made his debut back in 2011. He has so far picked up 536 wickets and is only behind Dwayne Bravo (625) and Rashid Khan (566) in this aspect. Narine’s economy rate of 6.10 is the second best too among players to have bowled more than 2000 deliveries in their T20 career. Samuel Badree boasts of the best economy rate of 6.08 in his 197-match career. The off-spinner has also bowled 30 maiden overs in his career so far which are the most in men’s T20 cricket in history.
Coming to his heroics with the bat, Sunil Narine boasts of a strike-rate of 155.05 in powerplay in the shortest format. This is the fourth best strike-rate among batters who have faced more than 1000 balls in the first six overs in men’s T20 cricket. The 35-year-old has also won 10 titles in T20 cricket so far including one T20 World Cup with only Bravo (17), Pollard (16) and Malik (15) ahead of him.
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