Narine joins Gayle, Simmons in elite list of West Indian centurions in IPL

Sunil Narine became the only player in IPL history to have hit a century and taken more than 100 wickets as well

Sunil Narine became only the third West Indian player to hit a century in the Indian Premier League. After hitting Yuzvendra Chahal for two fours and a six in a row at the Eden Gardens in match 31 of IPL 2024, the Kolkata Knight Riders batter on Tuesday, April 16, joined Chris Gayle and Lends Simmons as the only three players from the Caribbean to go past the 100-run mark in a match.

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Thanks to this century of his, Narine also moved to the third spot in the IPL 2024 Orange Cap leaderboard. In his knock of 109, the southpaw smashed 13 fours and six humungous sixes, targeting the Rajasthan spinner Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin in particular. 

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List of West Indian Players with Cneturies in IPL history 

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YEAR	MAT	NO	RUNS	HS	AVG	BF	SR	100	50	4S	6S	CT	ST
Chris Gayle	142	16	4965	175*	39.72	3333	148.96	6	31	405	357	29	0
Lendl Simmons	29	2	1079	100*	39.96	852	126.64	1	11	109	44	10	0
Sunil Narine	168	20	1322	109	16.12	802	164.84	1	5	140	84	27	0

Centuries by Kolkata Knight Riders batters 

This century by Narien was only the third century ever by a KKKR batter. Narine Joined Brendon McCullum, who had hit a century in the inaugural match of the first season in 2008 and Venkatesh Iyer who had smashed a ton in IPL 2023. 

Narine: Only player with more than 100 wickets and century in IPL

With this hundred, Narine also became the only player in the history of the IPL to have taken 100 wickets and have a century against his name. Sahne Watson, who has three IPL centuries to his name, took only 92 wickets in his career. Narine has 168 wickets to his name in equals number of matches. 

What did Narine say after his century?

Speaking at the mid-game interval, Narine, while answering the questions of the broadcast commentators said that he would have taken the fact that he is in the race for the Orange Cap as a joke. "I would have taken it as a joke because I haven't opened in such a long time or did much with the bat in the years past," said the 35-year-old. 

Gautam Gambhir changed things for Narine 

Narine, who started opening for the Knight Riders during Gautam Gambhir's tenure as captain of the team way back in 2014, said that the former captain-turned-mentor has given him enough confidence again. 

"With GG coming back, he gave me the confidence and his assurance that I'll open the batting. The job is just to go out there and try to give a good start, whatever the situation is, still keep going because if you try to face dot balls in the powerplay, it could hurt you in the backend. 

So just go there and try to give your team a good start," said the Trinidad and Tobago-born spin maestro. Gambhir joined KKR just ahead of this season.