Narine blitzes RCB

Sunil Narine smashed the joint fastest IPL fifty in his sensational knock of 54 as Kolkata Knight Riders thrashed Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets to seal a play-offs berth in Bengaluru yesterday.

Narine (54 from 17 balls) reached his fifty in just 15 balls, the same number of deliveries his KKR teammate Yusuf Pathan had consumed in 2014 against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Narine and his opening partner Chris Lynn put on 105 runs from just 6.1 overs in  as KKR chased down the target of 159 in a jiffy with 4.5 overs to spare.

Earlier, Travis Head smashed a brilliant unbeaten 75 after Mandeep Singh's 52 as RCB recovered from a top-order collapse to post 158 for six after being put in to bat.

The big names like Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and A B de Villiers were dismissed cheaply as RCB slumped to 34 for three in the fifth over.

In the other game of the day, Dwayne Smith struck a whirlwind 74 as Gujarat Lions defeated Kings XI Punjab by six wickets in an Indian Premier League game.

Sent into bat, Hashim Amla played a brilliant knock to notch up his second century of the ongoing IPL and power Kings XI Punjab to a challenging 189 for three.

Amla, thus, became the second batsman after Virat Kohli to register two centuries in a single IPL season.

Later, Smith turned out to be the architect of the victory for Gujarat with a whirlwind 74 off just 39 deliveries to get Gujarat off to a flier while chasing a challenging 190 for win.

Together with Ishan Kishan (29 off 24 balls), Smith shared 91 runs for the opening partnership to lay the foundation for the chase.

Dinesh Karthik (35 not out off 23 balls) played a short cameo towards the end as Gujarat Lions reached 192 for four in 19.4 over in their pursuit of 190.