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SHARJAH: West Indies ace spinner Sunil Narine entered the T20 record books by becoming the third bowler to take 600 wickets in the format during the International League T20 (ILT20) second fixture here at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
The mystery spinner achieved the milestone while leading the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders’ opening match against the Sharjah Warriorz on Wednesday.
The 37-year-old removed Tom Abell to take his 600th wicket, after ending his Caribbean Premier League (CPL) on 599 wickets in September.
Sunil Narine has taken 558 innings to reach the feat, the most among the two others. Overall, he bowled an economical spell, giving away only 22 runs in his quota of four overs.
With this, Narine entered an elite list with Rashid Khan and his compatriot Dwayne Bravo, who have more than 600 wickets to their name in T20 cricket.
Afghanistan spin wizard Rashid Khan tops the chart with 681 wickets to his name, followed by Bravo, whose wicket tally is 631.
681 – Rashid Khan (495 innings)
631 – Dwayne Bravo (546 innings)
600 – Sunil Narine (558 innings)
570 – Imran Tahir (429 innings)
504 – Shakib Al Hasan (453 innings)
With Rashid joining MI Emirates as a replacement player, the Afghan leg-spinner now has a strong chance to move closer to the 700-wicket milestone, competing in both the ILT20 and SA20 tournaments back-to-back.
Nonetheless, the match began poorly for Warriorz, as their decision to bowl first backfired when Abu Dhabi Knight Riders posted a massive 233-run total.
Liam Livingstone and Sherfane Rutherford delivered explosive innings, with Livingstone blasting 33 runs off a single Dwayne Pretorius over, effectively putting the game out of reach.
Although Tim David, supported by Pretorius and Rashid, showed late resistance, Warriorz ultimately fell short, with the Knight Riders securing an impressive 39-run victory to open their campaign.
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