An all-around performance by Sunil Narine powered the Kolkata Knight Riders to a three-wicket win over the Delhi Capitals in an afternoon encounter at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. 

The 33-year old picked up two vital wickets of Shreyas Iyer and Lalit Yadav to derail the batting unit of the Capitals. In his four overs, Narine returned with figures of 2/ 18 to help the Knight Riders restrict Delhi to a modest total of 127/9.

Chasing 128 runs, the Knight Riders were reeling at 96 for the loss of five wickets when Narine walked into bat. With 32 required off the same number of deliveries, the southpaw smashed a quick-fire 21 off 10 balls to help the boys in Purple and Gold chase down the target with three wickets to spare.

Earlier in the day, Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bowl first. The opening combination of Steve Smith and Shikhar Dhawan got off to a steady start and forged a 35-run partnership for the first wicket before the Dhawan was dismissed for 24 on the last ball of the fifth over.

A couple of balls after the completion of the powerplay, the mystery spinner picked up the prized wicket of Shreyas Iyer to derail the batting unit. The Knights reaped massive dividends by consistently targeting the stumps and made optimum use of the variations to stifle the Delhi batters.

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On a sluggish wicket, the bowling unit led by Narine picked up wickets at regular intervals to dent the opposition scoring rate. With runs hard to come by and the discipline showcased by the Knights, Capitals lost a flurry of wickets in the middle overs. Along with Narine, Venkatesh Iyer (2/29) and Lockie Ferguson (2/10) picked up a couple of wickets to restrict the Delhi Capitals for 127/9 in their quota of 20 overs.

In reply, Shubman Gill and Venkatesh started the innings steadily on a slow wicket. The duo stitched a 28-run partnership for the opening wicket before the southpaw was dismissed for 14. Despite the stutter, Gill continued to anchor the innings along with Nitish Rana and scored a valuable 30 at the top of the order.

Despite the wicket of Gill on the last ball of the 11th over, Rana continued to attack the bowling unit and help the team inch closer to the target. He was well supported by Narine down the order as the duo smashed Kagiso Rabada for 21 runs in the 16th over to tilt the match in favour of the Knight Riders.

Rana contributed with an unbeaten knock of 36 runs to power the team to a three-wicket win. The Knight Riders will lock horns against the Punjab Kings on Friday, 1st October at the Dubai International Stadium.