Watching off-spinner Sunil Narine walk out to bat along with Gautam Gambhir at the top of the order for Kolkata Knight Riders in their chase of Kings XI Punjab’s 170/9 on Thursday would have brought looks of bewilderment and even a few chuckles. But no one is laughing now after Narine smashed his way to an 18-ball 37 at the top and provided KKR the perfect start along with his captain.

Narine’s innings had plenty of swings-and-misses, but when he managed to connect willow with leather, the ball travelled a fair distance. Watching from the non-striker’s end, Gambhir could only applaud his new-found batting partner’s knock, which included four fours and three sixes.

“I really enjoyed it and it takes a lot of pressure off my shoulders,” Gambhir told iplt20.com after the match. “With Narine on the other side I knew there was someone on the other side who is going to go hard at the bowlers and score runs at will, that too at each and every delivery. My job is to keep batting as long as I can at one end with Narine going berserk at the other end. With that, I know that there is Narine and then the rest of the batting to follow.”

Asked if Narine would open the batting again this season, Gambhir said, “If it keeps working we will see Narine at the top. When he bats at No 8, he hardly gets any deliveries to bat, with just some tail-enders left. If this move does work well going forward, it is going to be a great advantage for us. We have a batting line-up that boasts of hitting the big ball and are attacking players.With Sunil going all guns blazing, it just lengthens our batting line-up.”

Before his whirlwind knock, Narine also took 1/19 in four overs with the bowl, which helped KKR restrict KXIP to 170/9. “Having Sunil in the side is always a luxury with his quality of bowling and as someone who can hit the big ball,” Gambhir said.

‘Freedom to express myself’

Narine’s promotion to the top of the order would not have been a surprise to followers of the Big Bash League in Australia. The Trinidadian had opened the innings three times for his Melbourne Renegades franchise last season, but none of those innings were as memorable as the one on Thursday. His scores in those three innings were 21(13), 12(10), and 4(4).

Narine admitted that he did spend “a lot of time at the nets” batting ahead of the match. “I do enjoy my batting and I have walked out to bat early in the innings for my T20 franchise in Australia,” he said. “Today, I was asked to bat at the top and I took the opportunity with both hands. I loved batting with Gambhir at the top tonight. Batting in that position I get the freedom to express myself and go for my shots and give the kind of start the team wants.”

Asked if Narine took batting tips from him and some of the other big hitters in the KKR team such as Robin Uthappa and Yusuf Pathan, Gambhir said, “I think it should be the other way round as well. Some of the batsmen should be really proud of the way he batted. Look at some of the shots he played. I need to take tips from Narine to hit big sixes.”

Gambhir hasn’t hit a single six in IPL 10, but now wears the Orange Cap for being the leading run-scorer this season, with 167 in three matches, which includes two half-centuries. On Thursday, after Narine was eventually dismissed in the sixth over of the innings, Gambhir remained unbeaten on 72, which he compiled off just 49 balls, as he took KKR past the finish line with 21 balls to spare.

Narine said he was happy that a bit of his captain’s purple patch was rubbing off on him. “Every year, you come here you always see Gambhir in the top run-getters’ list for KKR and being close to the Orange Cap,” he said. “Watching him bat, it always gives you confidence and makes the wickets look like it is not doing much. It is a good team spirit and great team effort and hopefully if we can continue batting like this, we can continue winning games.”