Ranking all hundreds by KKR batters in IPL ft. Sunil Narine

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) suffered their second defeat of the 17th season of IPL as the Rajasthan Royals, inspired by an extraordinary century from Jos Buttler, chased down 224 on the final delivery of the match. This was also the highest successful run chase in IPL history.

KKR seemed to have the match in their pocket when Rovman Powell was trapped in front by Sunil Narine in the 17th over. The onus was on Buttler to take Rajasthan home from a seemingly hopeless situation. The Englishman looked drained due to the extreme heat in Kolkata but dragged himself to take his side home, completing his century in the process.

Earlier in the day, it was a blistering century from Sunil Narine and useful contributions from Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Rinku Singh, which propelled Kolkata to a massive score of 223.

It was also the third time that a KKR player scored an IPL century. Having said that, let us now rank the three hundreds from the KKR batters.

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#3 Venkatesh Iyer - 104 off 51 vs Mumbai Indians in 2023

Venkatesh Iyer raises his bat after scoring his century against MI in 2023.

Venkatesh Iyer rose to the limelight with an incredibly consistent showing with the bat in his maiden IPL stint back in 2021. He became an integral part of the KKR set-up and became just the second batter in the franchise's history to register an IPL century.

Venkatesh came in at No 3 after Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and put the visitors to bat. Having lost Narayan Jagadeesan early, Venkatesh had to take the onus on himself to steady the ship.

Venkatesh was at his destructive best and kept smashing the MI bowlers to all corners of the Wankhede stadium. He didn't get enough support at the other end but went on to score a magical century which came in just 49 deliveries. The knock was studded with six fours and nine sixes.

His knock went in vain in the end MI made light work of the target of 186, chasing it down with 14 deliveries to spare.

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#2 Sunil Narine - 109 off 56 deliveries vs RR in 2024

The resurrection of Sunil Narine as a batter in this IPL season has been nothing short of phenomenal. From scoring just 154 runs in the last three seasons combined to be in the race for the Orange Cap this year, Narine's batting has been one of the major reasons why KKR are at the top half of the points table.

What makes Narine so special at the top of the order is the simplicity of his approach. He is never afraid of losing his wicket and it was much the same against Rajasthan. He didn't quite time the ball in the first few overs but once he got his first big hit, there was no looking back.

It was top-quality hitting against two of the best spinners going around. Neither Ravichandran Ashwin nor Yuzvendra Chahal could settle into a rhythm against Narine as the southpaw kept them plundering all over Eden Gardens. His knock of 109 included 13 fours and six maximums.

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#1 Brendon McCullum - 158 off 73 deliveries vs RCB in 2008

Now you can't look beyond this masterclass from Brendon McCullum. Back in 2008 when IPL was nowhere close to the carnival it is today, it was this superlative knock from Kiwi that gave IPL the kickstart it needed. Playing in the first-ever IPL match, McCullum was at his decimating best and smashed 158 off just 73 deliveries against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (now Bengaluru).

Whatever McCullum touched that day turned to gold. The likes of Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, and Jacques Kallis had absolutely no answer to a brutal onslaught from the Kiwi batter as he treated the Chinnaswamy crowd to some of the finest power-hitting you will ever see.

None of the bowlers were spared and despite scoring his century, he didn't stop there. Sixes galored as a glum-looking Rahul Dravid, the then RCB captain, was left scratching his head.

McCullum smashed 10 fours and 13 sixes during his historic knock and set up the platform for a massive 140-run win for KKR.