Sunil Narine impresses in comfortable win over Punjab

Sunil Narine, who failed to impress in Kolkata's win against Hyderabad three-days ago, was back to his wicket-taking ways and clinched two wickets to help his side beat Punjab by six wickets in the Indian Twenty20 competition in Mohali on Tuesday.

Gautam Gambhir, Kolkata's captain, won the toss and opted to bowl first on a pitch that offered bounce and carry. Punjab's openers, Manan Vohra and Murali Vijay, added 21 runs in the first 3.4 overs, before Morne Morkel dismissed Vohra. Vijay, who slammed four boundaries in his 22-ball 26, was the next to fall, when he failed to pick a Piyush Chawla googly in the eighth over.

Wriddhiman Saha was promoted to No. 4 in a bid to lift the run rate, but Kolkata's bowlers continued to maintain a tight line and made scoring difficult. When Saha fell to Narine for a 14-ball eight - in the 11th over - Punjab had managed just 59. The stage was set for the powerful middle order - comprising of David Miller and Glenn Maxwell - to come to the fore, but Miller fell for just six in the 13th over.

Kolkata's experienced bowling attack strangled any Punjab attempt to attack. Even the usually hard-hitting, Glenn Maxwell, was tied down. Maxwell then resorted to a switch-hit off Narine, in a bid to find the boundary, but he hammered it to extra cover. Narine ended with figures of two for 22 in his four overs. He conceded just one four and accounted for ten dot balls. Punjab managed just 138 in their innings.

Kolkata's inform openers, Gambhir and Robin Uthappa, added 82 runs in 8.3 overs to end any hope of a Punjab rearguard. Uthappa fell for a 28-ball 53 but the damage had already been done and Kolkata comfortably ended the chase with 17 balls to spare.

"We wanted to ease Narine in, we don't want to put too much pressure on him. We have five quality bowlers apart from him. It's time for others to share the burden that he has been carrying for quite some time. He's been brilliant since the last two games," Gambhir said.

"There's always room for improvement, but all of us want to continue the winning habit. You don't want to flirt with form, you never know when it will dry. When you're scoring runs, you need to get as many as possible."