Chris Lynn and Travis Head smashed half centuries for opposing teams as Lynn’s Kolkata Knight Riders beat Head’s Royal Challengers Bangalore side in the Indian Premier League.
Head managed to smash 75 not out off 47 balls for last-placed Bangalore with his only support coming from opener Mandeep Singh (52) as they made a poor 6-158 in their 20 overs.
It was a total that proved far from difficult for Kolkata, who moved to second with the win.
The Knight Riders chased it down with five overs to spare after Lynn (50) and fellow opener Sunil Narine (54) got them off to a flying start.
Narine’s half century came off just 15 balls, equalling the fastest 50 in the Indian Premier League.
Narine hit West Indies teammate Samuel Badree for three successive sixes and a four in the fourth over which cost the legspinner 25 runs.
Kolkata captain Gautam Gambhir was full of praise for Lynn and Narine post match.
“I haven’t seen such a partnership. Unbelievable effort. You don’t expect people to get 105 in 6 overs. I reckon Lynn is the hardest hitter of the ball in international cricket,” Gambhir said.
“He showed how mentally tough he is to come back from an injury and bat like this.
“It was a team decision to send Narine up the order because he would hardly bat at No. 6 or No. 7. We also though it would make it easy on Lynn to take his time at the other end on his return.”
In the later match Shaun Marsh scored 58 for Kings XI Punjab, while opener Hashim Amla made a T20 tom of 104 but it wasn’t enough as they were shocked by lowly Gujarat Lions.
Set a target of 190 to win the Lions, led by 74 from opener Dwayne Smith, chased it down with two balls to spare for a six-wicket win.
The result left Punjab skipper Glenn Maxwell fuming as it saw his side fail to hammer home a chance to close the gap on the top four with finals coming up.
“It was a pretty average night to tell you the truth,” Maxwell said.
“To have a guy get 100 and not be able to celebrate with a win is pretty devastating. We had enough runs but it was left to the bowlers and the fielders to do the job but we couldn’t.”
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