Once again, Sunil Narine (81 off 39 balls) wielded his bat like a superhero for the Kolkata Knight Riders. With the ball too, he was economical (1/22), while the rest also chipped in with wickets at regular intervals as the Knight Riders brushed Lucknow Super Giants aside by 98 runs at the Ekana International Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday.

With 16 points and a better net run rate, the Knights dislodged Rajasthan Royals at the top of the table and also have a foot in the playoffs now.

KKR resemble a happy family as they celebrate a wicket on Sunday. PTI

Recording his fourth 50-plus score in the ongoing IPL, the senior off-spinner blazed his way to hammer six boundaries and seven maximums, which were central to KKR posting 235/6 after being put in by the Super Giants. This was also the first time that a team had scored 200 or more in T20 cricket at the Lucknow ground.

The Lucknow pitch did facilitate strokeplay, but it was also a tad slower while the ball gripped on the surface when bowlers varied the pace.

That made Narine’s knock all the more special, along with his blistering 61-run opening stand with Phil Salt (32 off 14 balls) in just over four overs which laid the platform for KKR.

For Lucknow to come up trumps, they needed something really big from the in-form Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran. But Andre Russell made sure they didn’t last long with his back-of-a-length stuff against both batters. What also made matters tougher for Lucknow was captain KL Rahul’s inability to force the issue in the Powerplay. Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy claimed three wickets each for the Knights.