KKR vs RCB: Sunil Narine becomes fourth overseas player to feature in 150 IPL games

West Indies mystery spinner Sunil Narine on Thursday became the fourth overseas player to feature in 150 games in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023.

The Kolkata Knight Riders star joined the likes of fellow West Indian Kieron Pollard (189), South African AB de Villiers (184) and Australian David Warner (164) to achieve the feat.

Narine has played all the games for KKR since making his debut for the Kolkata-based franchised in IPL 2012.

Overall, Narine is the seventh cricketer to play 150 or more games for a single franchise in the IPL behind Virat Kohli (225 for RCB), MS Dhoni (206 for CSK), Kieron Pollard (189 for MI), Rohit Sharma (183 for MI), Suresh Raina (176 for CSK) and AB de Villiers (156 for RCB).

Narine has so far picked 153 wickets from 149 T20s at 25.23 with seven 4-wicket hauls and a five-for. He is 8th on the list of highest wicket takers in the IPL and also amassed 1032 runs with the bat including four half-centuries.

RCB opts to bowl first at Eden Gardens

Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and opted to bowl first at the Eden Gardens. RCB have made just the one forced change as they brought in left-arm seamer David Willey in place of the injured Reece Topley.

KKR meanwhile, have included debutant Suyash Sharma to replace Anukul Roy in their playing XI.

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Mandeep Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy

Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Glenn Maxwell, Michael Bracewell, Dinesh Karthik(w), Shahbaz Ahmed, David Willey, Karn Sharma, Harshal Patel, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj