Sunil Narine, one of Kolkata Knight Riders' most trusted players, recorded a huge milestone in T20 cricket history on Saturday (May 11).
The mystery spinner bagged the crucial wicket of Mumbai Indians' wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan in the 60th game of IPL (Indian Premier League) 2024 to join the elite list of players with 550 or more scalps in T20 cricket.
Narine is only the third player in T20 history to scale the milestone after Dwayne Bravo of the West Indies and Afghanistan's Rashid Khan.
Bravo has claimed the most wickets (625) in the format whereas Rashid is second on the list with 574 scalps. Leading into the 60th fixture of the 17th season of the Indian Premier League, Narine required just a solitary wicket to enter the 550 club and he just needed to wait for an over to claim the wicket.
He was attacked by Ishan Kishan in his first over and got hit for a four and a maximum on the penultimate and the final delivery of the over. However, the veteran bowler kept his calm as he usually does and got the better of Ishan in his second over.
Narine bowled a seam-up delivery targetting the stumps and Ishan managed to hit it straight down to deep-midwicket's throat. Ishan's wicket came as a sigh of relief for KKR as he was looking to take the game away from them.
He got out after scoring 40 off 22 balls with the help of five fours and two sixes at a strike rate of 181.81.
Leading wicket-takers in T20 cricket
| Player | Matches | Wickets |
| Dwayne Bravo | 573 | 625 |
| Rashid Khan | 425 | 574 |
| Sunil Narine | 510 | 550 |
| Imran Tahir | 405 | 502 |
| Shakib Al Hasan | 429 | 486 |
| Andre Russell | 494 | 445 |
| Wahab Riaz | 348 | 413 |
| Lasith Malinga | 295 | 390 |
| Sohail Tanvir | 388 | 389 |
| Chris Jordan | 355 | 368 |
