Sunil Narine becomes first player to clinch MVP award in IPL thrice

Sunil Narine (Pic: AFP)

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) all-rounder Sunil Narine has become the first player to win the 'Most Valuable Player' award in the Indian Premier League (IPL) thrice after beating the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the IPL 2024 final.

Narine won his first MVP award in the IPL 2012 after picking up 24 wickets, it was also his debut season. His second MVP came in the 2018 season of the tournament when he scored 357 runs and picked 17 wickets as well.

In IPL 2024, Narine displayed a stunning performance for the Kolkata-based franchise. He scored 488 runs and bagged 17 wickets.

In the final match of the IPL 2024 against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Narine took one wicket and gave 16 runs in his four-over spell, he removed Jaydev Unadkat from the crease in the 18th over. During the run chase, he scored six runs after playing two balls at a strike rate of 300.

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KKR lifted their third title under the leadership of Shreyas Iyer after thumping the Hyderabad-based franchise by 8 wickets on Sunday.

Recapping the match, SRH won the toss and elected to bat first. KKR rocked SRH with continuous wickets, with the big buy Mitchell Starc justifying his hefty price tag. Only skipper Pat Cummins (24 in 19 balls, with two fours and a six) and Aiden Markram (20 in 23 balls, with three fours) touched the 20-run mark and SRH was bundled out for 113 in 18.3 overs.

Andre Russell (3/19) was the top bowler for KKR. Starc (2/14) and Harshit Rana (2/24) also contributed well with the ball. Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Vaibhav Arora took a wicket each.

KKR pulled off the run-chase of 114 run-target in just 10.3 overs with eight wickets in hand. Venkatesh Iyer (52' in 26 balls, with four boundaries and three sixes) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (39 in 32 balls, with five fours and two sixes) shined for KKR in the final match of the tournament.

(With agency inputs)